Final Fantasy IV Dark Elf Wars Unfinished
by kuroikazesama
Summary: Set 3 years after the events in the game. The dark elves are attempting to release an evil thats older and more powerful than Zeromus
1. The Dark Elf Wars Chapter 1

_Authors note: this story was written using the names of things from the Final Fantasy IV Rom translation except where I thought that the names from the U.S. version sounded better. The Crystal sword, for instance, is named the Ragnarok sword and the Nuke spell is called Flare in keeping with the original names. However, I still refer to the ship from the moon as the Big Whale though because I think it sounds cooler than the Magical Ship. Why did I do this, because I wrote the story and could do whatever I want. Also I have increased the sizeof the world of towns and their populations when the story calls for any numbers for those. I didn't think that a world populated with only a few dozen people per town made any sense so I just assumed that there are many people in the game which are just never seen. Instead of a few dozen I assume most of the towns contain at least a few thousand people. I also tried to create reasonable travel times between places, so that the world would seem to be normal sized. Lastly be warned that there is some mild language and violent battles in this fan fic._

The Dark Elf War

Chapter One

Mordihel

On the continent of Mysidia there was a man making his way down a steep mountain path. This mountain had been his home for almost three years and he was still not ready to leave. He wondered if he ever would be. No matter how hard he tried doubts still assailed him. He was tired of living like this, but he couldn't go home, not yet.

It was about this time that he heard some people coming up the mountain trail. He stood to greet them. A wagon pulled by a chocobo pulled around the corner and came to a stop when the driver noticed him. The driver looked almost sixty and had grey hair, next to him sat a woman of about twenty or twenty five, she had red hair in a braid and was tall for a woman, probably about six feet though Kain couldn't tell for sure since she was sitting.

"Hello there stranger, my names Duncan and this here is my guard Ryanna, may I ask your name" the driver said.

"Names Kain," was all that he replied.

"Oh, silent one are you, well I can't say I blame you. Only the wind to talk to most of the time I imagine," replied Duncan.

"What brings to this mountain sir," Kain asked?

"Huh, well I ain't no sir but I am a historian of sorts we came her to study the ruins would you happen to know where to find them." Duncan asked?

"Yeah I'll lead you to them." Kain replied.

"Thanks a heap…um what did you say your name was again," Duncan said.

"Kain," Kain repeated. Kain couldn't help himself, he liked this guy, the woman on the other hand, he couldn't quite place it but there was something different about her. He couldn't place it but something was definitely not normal…ah it's probably nothing. Kain chastised himself, first people you've talked to in almost six months and you automatically start making up trouble.

He led them over the western pass to the area where the ruins were located. After about two hours they finally made it there.

"Well I sure thank you for helping us find the ruins. As soon as we unpack we are going to eat would you like to join us?" Duncan said.

"I appreciate the offer but no, I can care for myself," Kain replied.

"Well alright, you sure," Duncan asked.

"Yes quite sure, I've been living on this mountain for almost three years now, I'll do alright," Kain said.

"Well in that case is there any advice you could give us about this mountain," Duncan asked?

Well the worst danger here aside from falling off a cliff is the undead monsters that roam around here, thought there aren't many any more. However, I've noticed that for some reason they never enter the ruins so you should be safe around here," Kain offered.

"Fascinating," Duncan thought allowed, "you said the undead never enter the ruins."

"Not that I've ever seen," Kain said, "Why?"

"Oh nothing I'm sure of, tell me do you have any thought as to who built these ruins," asked Duncan?

Kain smiled and shook his head, "I'm no scholar sir, I'm just a soldier, but I have seen some interesting writings in a language I've never seen on the building over there if that helps."

"Could you show them to me," Duncan asked?

Kain lead Duncan of to the building he was pointing to, and soon Duncan was absorbed into trying to decipher the strange marking on the wall. Kain wandered back to the camp where Ryanna was cleaning a wicked looking sword of a design Kain had never seen before. Something about the sword made him make a double take, I must have been mistaken he thought to himself but for a seconded he was sure that sword was burning. Perhaps she got the weapon from the dwarves, they made such weapons, but that was certainly was not a dwarf weapon. It was far to large, in fact Kain wondered how such a small woman could lift the sword at all.

Suddenly the woman looked up at him, "I'm Ryanna, your Kain right."

"Yep," Kain said, "Can I ask you a question?"

"Yeah," Ryanna replied.

"Where did you get that sword," asked Kain?

"Oh, it's a special two handed sword that only my people use," Ryanna said.

"And your people are?" Kain asked.

Ryanna started to speak and then caught herself, instead she asked, "would you like to try it."

Kain lifted it and was surprised to find that it was almost as light as a short sword and balanced well. "A fine piece of craftsmanship," he said handing it back. Though secretly he wondered how easily it would break in a battle. He suddenly had that feeling about her wash over him again. There was something not right about her. He quickly took his leave of her but told her to let Duncan know that he promised he would check in on them from time to time.

Yang was lying on the bed with his wife Ayan, though they were both well over fifty years old but still he found his wife beautiful. They seldom got moments like this one to be alone what with Yang ruling a country and having to train new recruits. Finally about three months before he trained the last batch of karate masters, their army was now bigger than it had been before the war and he was enjoying some free time. Some people thought it was foolish to have such a large army when there was no chance of war. There was peace between every country ever since the end of the crystal war, but the mastery of karate was about more than just fighting and besides just because no one thought there would be another war didn't mean there wouldn't be one. Suddenly a knock came at the door to their room.

"Who is it?" Yang asked in an annoyed tone.

One of his advisors named Sing opened the door, "Your majesty one of the karate masters has retuned from training on Mt. Hobbs…he wishes to speak with you.

"Returned… they aren't supposed to be back for two more weeks," Yang wondered as he sat up. That was when he noticed Sing's face was unusually pale. "What's wrong?" Yang asked suddenly becoming concerned.

"The karate master is…badly hurt…he may not live the night. He says that the entire squad was killed by…something," Sing finally said.

Yang was shocked, an entire squad, one hundred soldiers, dead. He got up he knew that his worst fears were coming true, another war, but with whom…who would attack us. The only other kingdom close to Mt. Hobbs was Damcyan and they would not attack us they had just finished rebuilding the castle Damcyan a month ago and besides King Edward was his friend and would not have done such a thing. He had many questions on his mind by the time he got to the infirmary.

Yang did not need to ask them thought the first words out of karate master Fang's mouth when he saw Yang was, "they weren't human."

"They were monsters then, but where did they come from?" Yang asked.

"NO!!" Fang said grabbing Yang's arm "they weren't monsters they…looked human but they had pointed ears like…like elves."

"Your majesty he is obviously hallucinating," one of the doctors said.

Yang didn't respond. Most people thought elves and dark elves were pure myth, a legend only. He knew different he had been with Cecil when they fought the dark elf in the cave north of Troia. If they really were attacked by dark elves on the mountain there could be serious problems for Fabul. He called for the guards and ordered them to get another squad of soldiers ready He would lead them to Mt. Hobbs to investigate what happened to the other squad.

Cecil sat on the edge of a window in the library staring out at the city of Baron. Rosa came to his side and gave him a hug from behind.

"You're thinking of Kain again aren't you?" Rosa queried.

"Is it that obvious?" Cecil asked giving his wife a tired smile. "You know it will be three years his been gone in just about three months, is he even alive."

Rosa looked horrified at the thought, "of course he's alive."

"He was my best friend growing up. I'd just like to see him again." Cecil said.

"I miss him to, I hope he's still safe," Rosa said.

"Damn," thought Kain as he sat huddled by the fire he had built. The morning air was quite cold on Mt. Ordeals as Kain had well learned in the last couple of years.

"Damn, Damn, Damn," he swore again, "why did I promise to check in on them, it's not like they're my concern…I've got my own problems and anyway how could I help them, but I did promise and I'm not about to break a promise," Kain said to himself. "I've broken to many promises already," Kain thought. His thoughts drifted back to Ryanna. "Who is she, and why was she so secretive about her past." "Why I'm I so curious all of the sudden?" Kain thought out loud, "so what if she had secrets…I have them too, It's not like I would tell them about my past either." With that Kain decided that since he had nothing better to do he would go check on them this morning.

"Your highness, it really is time you got married."

"I think you may have forgotten just which one of us is the king…Chamberlain," the king said with more than a little annoyance.

"No, No the chamberlain replied, I just think that your highness needs to be thinking about an heir is all meant to say," the Chamberlain began to back step.

"Well, said Edge, I don't want to think about it and you can't make me."

"Please your highness, why are you being so childish."

"Because I want to," Edge replied.

"Your highness, I have not seen you act in such a way months. I thought you might finally be taking your kingship seriously but evidently…"

"Look, I do take it seriously but what does that have to do with getting married" Edge cut in.

"It is for the good of the people that you must do this. You need an heir just as you parents did. Just think what would have happened to the kingdom three years ago when your parents die…" the Chamberlain trailed off realizing that the topic was still painful to Edge, "sorry your majesty."

"It's alright chamberlain," Edge looked out the window and thought a moment, "My parents, did they love each other."

"At first, no, they married because of their position. Your mother was originally from Troia, a daughter of one of the eight clerics I believe. Eventually they learned to love one another, and they both loved you very much.

"Didn't it bother them, marrying someone they didn't know?" Edge asked.

"Probably, but the point is they did what was required of them, just as you should. You know a king has certain responsibilities…"

"I know, I know but can't I at least wait and see if….Uh…well…I mean," Edge trailed off.

"Look I know this is hard but you have certain responsibilities as a king," the Chamberlain said.

"I know but…" Edge began

"But nothing," said the Chamberlain, "you need a wife to produce an heir and that's that."

"Okay, your right as usual," Edge relented having nothing left to

"If you wish I can help you find a suitable match," the Chamberlain said

"How" Edge asked?

I can compile a list of marriageable age from different countries and then allow you to choose from among them. Continued the chamberlain

"I guess that sound like a good idea," said Edge who was still unsure of how the Chamberlain had talked him into this.

"Excellent your highness I will begin at once," said the Chamberlain.

He left Edge there to sulk. He didn't like the idea of marriage one bit, though he couldn't figure out why. It couldn't be Rydia could it he thought. It had been six months since he had seen her. They had fought, as usual, the last time he saw her. Somehow he always managed to annoy her. Edge had always had his way with women it was even easier now that he was king, but those women only wanted him because of his title, and now he was going to marry one of those women, a woman who only cares about me because I am king.

Several days later Yang led his fighters up the slope of mount Hobbs looking for any sign of trouble. Then they saw it, the bodies of the men from the other squad. They had been strewn about the summit of mount Hobbs like so many rag dolls. Yang could not believe his eyes and thought he had seen many a battle in his day he had to resist the urge to throw up. Never in his life had he seen anything like this. They hadn't just been killed it was the way they were killed. Throats had been ripped out…or maybe bitten out he couldn't tell, many of the men were dismembered in various ways and their armor had been tore through like it was made of paper. Then he noticed a sword half covered by a body on the ground.

"None of our men fight with swords it must belong the enemy," Yang thought.

It was made in a fashion that Yang had never seen before. It was a long two handed weapon and looked as if it would have been slightly forward swept almost like a scythe, and was marked with strange runes.

Yang ordered one of his men to come over to him, "I want you to collect this sword so we can have a weapons expert identify the origin when we return."

After several hours of searching no one found any more clues as to who the attackers were. Yang was about to order a return march when suddenly the entire sky was filled with arrows. One nearly hit Yang but he parried it with his claw.

"Over the hill, get over the hill," Yang ordered his squad over the hill that the arrows had come from. Evidently this was a move the attackers had not expected. They quickly dropped their bows and picked up swords that looked much like the one Yang had found. Yang and the karate masters of Fabul quickly had the attackers surrounded and cut them to shreds with their claws.

Yang grabbed one of the dying enemies, as he lifted him of the ground the hood that covered the enemy's head fell off to reveal a man with upswept eyebrows and pointed ears. "You are an elf?!!" Yang asked in wonderment, he had only met one elf in his life when he was with Cecil.

"Elf ha," the man showed disgust at the name, "we are not weak like the elves hiding in their forests, we are the Mordihel…you would do well to remember that name for soon we shall rule over your kind."

"Mordihel?" Yang asked.

"In your tongue you have called us Dark Elves, but you are wrong. Humanity is a blight on this world and our brothers the Elves are even worse for agreeing not destroying you when they had the chance." Again disgust showed on his face at the mention of Elves.

"I have fought your kind before and I will kill all of you just like any who threaten this planet." Yang said angrily.

The Mordihel raised an eyebrow at this, "fought…one of us? You must be a friend of half Lunarian…bastard. You are foolish to think you can contend with us. The Mordell you killed was an outcast from us not even pure blood…using human magic…it was disgusting, he sought the crystal because he thought that it would give him a place among us. We are…stronger than you think and there are more of us than…you know." It was obvious he was growing weak from blood loss

"Why do you tell me all of this?" Yang asked.

The Mordihel smiled, "because…you…will…not leave here…alive, we…will…make…sure…of that" With his last breath he let out a whistle.

Suddenly there were hundreds of the Mordihel all over the summit, as if they had come out of the very rocks themselves. Yang's men were outnumbered at least three to one. "Retreat!!!" Yang yelled but the sound of his voice was lost amidst the sounds of his men being killed. He ran forward to the battle. The first Mordihel brought his sword in a swing toward Yang's head, but before it could connect Yang had gutted him with one of his claws. He tuned to attack another and then another and another. He killed at least a dozen trying to fight his way down to the pass towards Fabul, but they just kept coming. Another Mordihel stepped in his path. Yang parried a blow with one claw and tried to return the blow his other hand but the Mordihel drew a dagger and drove it into Yang's stomach. Then the Mordihel's sword cut a gash across Yang's chest. "Damn," Yang said as he fell to the ground. Yang's last thought before he passed out was of his wife.

Kain had been to see Duncan and Ryanna almost every day since they had been their. He hadn't realized how bored he had been until they had been there. He mostly just hung around with Duncan talking about things. He had learned that Duncan was a scholar from Troia, and came to learn about the civilization that built the ruins on this mountain. Ryanna was strangely quiet most of the time, Kain still got a strange feeling when he looked at her, the feeling was familiar to somehow though. He managed to pull away from his thought as he was coming over the ridge where the ruins were and was shocked to find them packing up to leave.

"Hello Kain," Duncan said, "I was hoping you would drop by before we left."

"Why are you leaving?" Kain asked, "You were planning to stay for two months.

"Hmm, well…I found something and I need to confer with the elder in Mysidia, you should come with us I could use the company" Duncan said.

"What about Ryanna," Kain asked.

"Oh she's good in a fight but not much of a conversationalist." Duncan said.

Kain smiled at that, most would say the exact same thing about him, "thanks for the offer but my time on this mountain has not been finished yet perhaps you will return."

"Umm…perhaps. Well bye Kain," he said as he jumped on the wagon and it slowly rolled down the trail.

It wasn't until after Duncan had left that Kain realized that something had been wrong with Duncan, he was…nervous, but about what. Then he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Something was sticking out of the door of one of the ruins. Kain walked over to it and found four dead bodies in the ruin. They were each holding long swords that curved forward slightly and were dressed as assassins. The hood of one man was off and that was when Kain noticed the backswept ears that came up to a point. "What was he?" Kain thought. There was something that triggered in his mind, a thought he couldn't quite locate. Where had he heard of people with pointed ears? All at once he remembered stories he heard as a child. Elves, a race that was older than humans and their cousins the Dark Elves. But those were just children's stories weren't they? "It doesn't matter at the moment thought. Duncan obviously left because of danger. That was why he asked me to come with him. I promised to protect them need to catch up to them.

Kain leapt down the side of the mountain landing on small overhangs, following a path most people could not. He had to catch up with the wagon. He finally saw down on the trail below. It was surrounded by at least a dozen men, all of them like the ones he saw dead in the ruins. Kain jumped down closer, but before he could get there one of the men walked forward and drove his sword through Duncan.

"NO!!" Kain heard Ryanna cry.

Ryanna jumped of the side of the wagon and drew her sword. The soldiers rushed her with swords drawn. She easily ducked under the swords and rolled past them. Turning she drove her sword through the back of the one closest to her. She parried another blow and then while the other had over extended himself she stepped in and took his head off with a single blow. There were to many of them thought and they were pushing her back towards a cliff. She probably was to intent of fighting to even know it was there by the time she would notice it would be to late. Kain then decided to make and appearance. He Jumped down and drove his spear through the nearest of the guards. He turned and swung his spear wide cutting the chest of another open. The rest tuned to face their new attacker. But, Kain had fought worse enemies than these, he wasn't about to lose. He swung at another he tried to parry but the force of the spear caused him to loose his footing and he tripped and fell over the cliff. A and then one of the soldiers got past Kain's guard only to find that his sword did not even dent Kain's armor. He did not even have time to register surprise before Kain ended his life. Within minutes Kain and Ryanna had dispatched the rest of them.

Ryanna was the first to speak, "Thanks for the help; you're pretty good with that spear."

"I'm just sorry I didn't get here sooner." Kain said.

Suddenly Ryanna's face went white, "Duncan!"

They ran to over to him to see what they could do but the wound was beyond any healing.

"They…found…us I guess," Duncan managed weakly. He had already lost a lot of blood.

"You should save your strength," Ryanna advised.

"It…doesn't matter; Asura herself couldn't help me now. Listen…those tablets I found…get them to…Mysidia. The Elder…will know…know how to read them…I think. Hurry…there will…be others…" With that Duncan breathed his last.

Kain felt wetness on his face and realized he was crying; he couldn't remember crying since he was little, since his father had been killed. He hadn't realized how much he cared Duncan; he was the first friend he had had for almost three years. "Pull yourself together; you don't have time for this, there are things to do," Kain told himself. He replaced the look of sadness on his face with one of determination. "Get the tablets Ryanna, we need to get out of here," Kain said.

"NO! We need to bury him" Ryanna looked defiant. "We can't just leave him like this.

"We don't have time, he said others would be here soon and since you've already been attacked twice in the last two day that's a good bet. Besides we're on a mountain, where would we bury him in the rock?" Kain said.

"Your right I know…It's just…he was my friend," Ryanna looked at Duncan's body.

"He was my friend to, but if we don't get those tablets to Mysidia his death will be for nothing." Kain said.

Ryanna walked over to the wagon and fished out a bag. "I don't know what's in these but Duncan was willing to die for them…so I'm willing to fight to protect them."

Kain eyed the chocobos tied to the wagon. "We should unhook them and ride; it will cut days off our journey."

"Good Idea," Ryanna said. "If we ride hard we could make Mysidia in four or five days.

Within minutes Kain and Ryanna had set out leaving the wagon and thirteen dead bodies on the road behind them.


	2. The Dark Elf Wars Chapter 2

The Dark Elf War

Chapter Two

Dark Tidings

The torches in Fabul had been burning all night as Yang's wife sat up looking out the window for the third night in a row. Yang had been due back five days ago. At first she didn't worry but he had never been late to anything in his life. She hadn't slept at all for two days at least and wouldn't until her husband was home. Suddenly a shout went up from the guards at the front gate, someone was coming. She ran down the stairs to the front gate. When she got there the gate guards were letting in a group of about ten or eleven guards, she immediately recognized them as part of the group Yang had taken. Was this all that was left, one hundred men had gone with Yang. It was then she realized that Yang was not among them.

"Where is Yang," she asked the closest one.

He slowly nodded his head towards the four men furthest back. She then noticed the stretcher they were carrying. Yang was laying on it. She ran to his side hopping he was not dead; she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw he was breathing.

"What happened?" she asked one of the soldiers.

"We were ambushed your highness," was his reply.

"By whom," she asked.

"We…we don't know, they weren't human but they weren't monsters either…that's all we know about them," the soldier replied weakly.

They took Yang to the infirmary and put him in a bed then they called the healers.

"What am I supposed to do?" the queen thought to herself. "Yang was always good at making leadership decisions, but until he's awake…if he awakes…NO I can't think like that. The healers may not be powerful enough to save him. Asura could heal him but Rydia is the only one who could summon her and she's been missing for over two years. Perhaps…yes…if anyone else could it would be the most powerful human white wizard on the planet and the queen knew that the queen of Baron would come if she sent for her."

The queen grabbed one of the guards, "Go tell the ship master to make ready the fastest ship in the fleet to go to Baron."

"Yes your majesty," the guard said before running of to carry out the command.

"Your Highness you really must pick a bride," the chamberlain said. They had been arguing for almost an hour

Edge sat on his throne trying to look anywhere but at the chamberlain, "Chamberlain I don't have time for this…there are important matters of state…"

The chamberlain interrupted raising his voice, "This matter of state is important! Edge you are trying to avoid this."

"So what if I am," Edge retorted. "Anyway I haven't liked any of the girls you've found, the only reason they want to marry me is because I'm a king."

"Of course they want to marry you because you are king," the chamberlain said loosing his temper.

About this time a woman walked into the throne room followed by two angry looking guards. "Your Majesty" the guards began "we are sorry for this intrusion but she demanded to see you at once."

Edge took a look at her and said, "Don't worry about it men just return to your posts. And who might you be?" he said turning to the woman.

"My name is Adrelea," she said.

"What a beautiful name," Edge said.

"I have come to be your bride," Adrelea said.

"In that case let's get to know each other," Edge said.

"Well I'll leave you to alone" the Chamberlain said as he walked out of the throne room hoping that Edge would like her better than the others. He was rather surprised when two hours later Edge announced that he would wed Adrelea, Surprised but happy, to happy it seems to question what had caused the sudden change in Edge, or to wonder who Adrelea was or where she had come from.

All Edge new is that he was happy, happier than he had been since the destruction of Eblan. When he was with Adrelea everything seemed to fade away, even his fears of inadequacy.

Cecil and Rosa were sitting on his throne dealing with some affairs of state when a guard entered carrying a message.

"Your Highness a message has just arrived from Fabul by ship," the guard said.

Cecil smiled, "What message has Yang sent us."

The guard faltered a second, "The…the message does not come from the king it comes from the queen."

This gave Cecil pause, "Ayan, what message does she send us."

"The queen of Fabul has requested Queen Harvey's assistance as a healer, it seems the king of Fabul was badly injured in a battle on mount Hobbs and the healers in Fabul are unable to heal his wounds."

Cecil and Rosa were both shocked.

"Cecil, I must go and try to help him," Rosa said.

"Yes, you must," said Cecil. "Guard, go and find Cid and tell him he is to make ready an airship for fight in one hour." The guard left immediately to carry out the order.

Cecil turned to Rosa, "Go help him…but be careful. Something stinks about this, why was Yang on mount Hobbs anyway…he's almost sixty."

Rosa looked thoughtful, "What bothers me is who would attack Fabul anyway; we have had nothing but peace for almost three years."

"One hour to prep and air ship," Cid's voice boomed thought the door. He walked up to Cecil. "You know it takes more time than that to get an airship ready, at least three or four hours."

"Cid…Yang's been injured in some kind of battle and Rosa is going to Fabul to try to heal him." Cecil said

Cid turned pale, "Yang was injured…I'll have the enterprise prepped for flight in forty-five minuets and I'll fly Rosa down there myself, I wouldn't trust her safety to any other pilot." Cid said.

"But who will take over your duties while your gone Cid?" Cecil asked.

"Actually I've been meaning to talk to you about that."

"What do you mean?" asked Cecil.

"Well I ain't gettin any younger and…well I've been training a replacement." Cid said. "She's just about ready to take over from me too"

"She?" Cecil asked.

"My daughter, Lorien, she can take care of things for me no problem," Cid said.

"If you say she can handle it I trust you," Cecil said.

"Course she can," Cid said as he left to take care of things.

Rosa looked at Cecil, "I'll return as soon as possible." Then she got up and followed Cid out the door.

Cecil went to his study and sat in thought a bit, He couldn't feel anything definite but something evil was working in the midst of this. He had to figure out what was going on before it was too late.

Kain and Ryanna had about one day left to reach Mysidia. At the moment they were resting by a fire they had built. Kain had really begun to like Ryanna; they were kindred spirits alike in many ways Kain had not guessed. "No, I can't allow myself to care about her," he thought suddenly. "I betrayed everyone I cared for back then. I can't take the chance that it might happen again."

"What are you thinking about?" Ryanna snapped Kain out of his thoughts.

"Just reflecting on how weird life is," Kain said trying to hide his thoughts.

"Well if you'd like to get some sleep I can take first watch," Ryanna said.

"No, you sleep, I'll watch," Kain said.

"Okay," Ryanna rolled over on her side. "Kain, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure what is it?" Kain asked.

"Why don't you ever talk about yourself?" Ryanna asked.

Kain gave pause, he hadn't seen this coming at all, "Why do you ask?"

"Well you me and…Duncan, well we talked to you all the time, but you always avoided talking about you past," Ryanna said.

"My past is…complicated," Kain answered making it clear that he did not wish to discuss it.

"Oh…I'm sorry I shouldn't have asked," Ryanna started to apologize.

"No it's alright, don't worry about it…you should get some sleep," Kain said.

Ryanna was awakened by Kain three hours later. Kain was shaking her awake and then he said three words, "They've found us."

Ryanna bolted upright, "Where are they."

Kain pointed into the woods behind them, "a few hundred yards that way." Then he added, "It looks like it will start raining soon that will cover our tracks. If they don't know we are going to Mysidia we could lose them, if we leave now and ride hard."

They quickly mounted the chocobos and rode of towards Mysidia and the first drops of rain began to fall.

Rosa had arrived at castle Fabul quickly and she and Cid were taken to the queen. Rosa gave Ayan a hug.

"I came as soon as we heard. What happened?" Rosa asked.

Yang's wife filled them in on what had happened to Yang.

"How is he now?" Rosa asked.

"He has not changed," Yang's wife replied. "The healers of Fabul cannot heal him…I fear that the attackers had poisoned their weapons somehow."

"Let me try to help him," Rosa said.

She went to Yang's side and took his hand and began chanting slowly.

"It's not working," she frowned after several minutes. "I need something more powerful than conventional magic."

She leaned over Yang and placed her hands on his shoulders; she began chanting and quickly fell into a trance. Several of the healers who were still there let out a gasp as they saw what she was doing.

"What is she doing," Ayan asked one of the healers?

"It's very powerful…far beyond my abilities…I did read about it in book once though. Basically if a person is affected by some dark magic that cannot be healed externally the wizard can heal it from the inside," the healer replied.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Cid.

"Well some weapons are poisoned, but a regular poison is easy to heal because its inter-workings are simple, so we create a simple spell to that can be easily mastered to heal most regular poisons. However poisons can be made with the aid of dark magic, the darker and more powerful the magic the more difficult it can be to heal because it is not simply a physical poison, the magic attacks the mind and to heal the person one must unravel the spell and counteract it. This, we suspected, is why we could heal the physical wounds but he still did not awake. Our magic is simple…we can heal physical wounds but wounds of the mind are much harder. Queen Harvey has left her body for the time being so she can get inside the spell and unravel it. It requires a great deal of control, because if one is not careful they could become trapped in the spell as well."

"It sounds dangerous," Cid said.

"If any one can heal the king she can," the healer replied. "My guess is she will be here all night if the spell is very complicated."

"Why didn't you tell me about this spell earlier," the queen asked angrily.

"Your majesty…we have limited skills we didn't know for sure until just now…" the healer began.

"And you wanted to spare and old woman pain," Ayan said.

The healer was about to deny such a claim but the queen waved him off.

"What I want to know is why?" asked Ayan. "None of the others troops were attacked with such a powerful magic."

Cid broke in, "If I might be so bold your majesty from what I have heard my experience tells me they planed this to get at Yang. They were counting on the first attack bringing Yang out in the open. Tell me have your scouts reported any strange activity in this area."

Ayan looked worried, "One report did say that something was off in the mountains to the north but they couldn't figure out why."

Cid looked grim, "I would advise that you double the guard tonight."

They were interrupted by sounds from out side the hall. One of the guards burst in. "Soldiers are marching towards the castle," the guard said breathlessly.

"What?" Ayan asked.

"Damn, it's to late," Cid swore.

"Don't just stand there," Ayan yelled at the guard. "go wake every soldier in the castle and get them to the wall."

The guard ran in the direction of the barracks.

"We need to see these soldiers that are bearing down on the castle," Ayan said.

Cid followed after her amazed that she was handling all of this so well. They left the room and went to the battlements to see the force marching towards them. It was easy to see that they were out numbered.

"What should we do first?" Ayan asked Cid.

"Well you've tightened defenses, that's a good thing; I need to get word to Cecil to send help, I hate to leave Rosa here by herself but I'll leave the contingent of Baronian Dragoons that came with us to help you in the fight," Cid asked.

"Fine I hope you can get word fast enough."

Cid went to see to go see the Dragoons first. He found them in the main courtyard.

"Where's the captain?" Cid asked.

"Captain Farrell reporting Sir," one of the men said stepping forward.

"Good, I suppose you've noticed the large army coming this way," Cid said.

"Yes Sir"

"I'm going to Baron to get reinforcements you stay here and assist in the protection of Fabul"

"Yes Sir"

Cid walked off in the direction of the airship but as he was walking down to the ship he suddenly felt that something was wrong. He saw somebody slip in to the shadows a little ways ahead. Cid pulled his war hammer lose and slipped around the corner where the shadow had gone. He rounded the corner and saw a small person trying to hide in the shadows.

"Come out from there," Cid said.

Suddenly the figure leapt out of the shadow swinging two small swords. Cid easily parried the first sword but the second caught his arm and gave him a deep cut. However the second swing had over extended the figure and before it could move back Cid brought his hammer down on its head. He inspected his kill and realized it was a Goblin. "What would a goblin be doing here," Cid thought to himself. He then remembered the cut he had received and began to inspect it. It was wide but it was bleeding quiet a bit. He ripped part of the goblin's tunic off to wrap his arm. He then went to inspect what the goblin had been doing. He discovered several packets of explosives in a pack in the shadows the goblin leapt from. Cid turned to go warn the guards of the attempted sabotage but before he took three steps he heard an explosion and turned to see the Enterprise in flames. Cid rushed to the ship to try to put out the flames. The rest of the crew were already working hard bringing water from Fabul's well, but by the time the fire was out a lot of damage had been done. Cid looked over the engines to see how long it would take to repair, and then went to tell Ayan the bad news.

"The engines were damaged badly in the explosion," Cid told Ayan.

"Can the ship still fly?"

"I can do some makeshift repairs that would make the ship flyable, the control propellers weren't damaged to badly, but the main engine, that's another story, long distance flights are out of the question." Cid said.

"What do you mean?" asked Ayan.

"Flying for long distances require the main engine to run extremely fast to reach enough height and speed, There is no way I can use the ship to get word to anyone. Though I can probably use it in the fight."

"It can't be fixed?" Ayan asked.

"I didn't bring replacement parts or the right tools for such a large repair. Is there another way out of the castle besides the gates?" Cid suddenly asked.

"Yes we built a tunnel after the last siege."

"Send some soldiers to get word to Damcyan, they don't have a large army but at least Edward could send word to baron."

"Will they be able to get word in time?" Ayan asked.

"They'll have to, it's our only chance," Cid replied.

Kain and Ryanna rode hard for the entire night and most of the next day but three miles out of Mysidia the chocobos collapsed from exhaustion. They tried to running but the mounted knights reached them quickly and surrounded them.

The leader spoke up while brandishing one of their wicked looking swords, "give us the tablets or die."

"How bout I just kill all of you instead," Kain replied.

The knights laughed. "You're skilled," said the leader, "you might even take a few of us with you but there are thirty of us and two of you, you'll lose and you know it."

"But you'll kill us if we give you the tablets anyway so I think I'll take my chances," Kain replied.

Kain leapt at the closest one impaling him with the holy spear. Ryanna struck one with her bow then dropped it and drew her sword. She cut the neck of a chocobo knocking the rider off. At the same time Kain jumped down on another with his spear. A knight lashed out and pierced Kain's armor and cut his arm another struck him on his head his helmet deflected it but he could feel blood run down his face anyway. Ryanna had killed two others as Kain managed to fend of three attackers. He and Ryanna backed up against each other. She was bleeding in several places as well. The knights had them surrounded. The twenty or so knights were closing in on them they could not defeat so many at the same time. Before the knights could kill them, however, something unexpected happened. "Fire two" a voice shouted and suddenly the four knights closest to Kain burst into flame. As the knights tried to put there comrades out another voice shouted out "Cure two" and suddenly Kain's and Ryanna's felt the power of magical healing. Kain jumped over the four knights that had been hit by the fire spell and drove the holy spear into another knight just as several other knights turned to face their new attackers. Palom and Porom, the two young twin magicians of Mysidia appeared on the hill. A bunch of knights rode towards them but before they could close on them Palom and Porom both started chanting TWIN. A bunch of small meteors fell on the knights. Six or seven were killed instantly. The other knights were burned badly and tried to organize themselves to make another attack. Kain's spear went through the breast plate of the first. Several broke into a run and quickly found Ryanna's arrows in their backs. Within a few more minute they had killed the rest.

Kain turned towards the twins, "It's lucky you found us."

"Luck had nothing to do with it, strange things have been going on lately so Elder has been scouting the areas around Mysidia with magic sight. He saw you being chased and sent us as aid." Porom said.

"Elder sent you? But you couldn't be more than…" Kain began.

We're twelve; we're also two of the few wizards in Mysidia to have been in actual battles, most of them are a bunch of book worms." Palom said.

"Well my name is Kain and this is Ryanna, what are you names?" Kain asked.

"I am Porom…" began Porom.

"And I'm the Mysidian genius Palom," Palom said.

"Excuse my brother; he has a vaulted opinion of his intellect," Porom said.

Palom flustered and tried to come up with a come back, "I'll…vault…your…opinion."

"Are you talking?" Porom asked.

"Shut up Porom," was all Palom managed to come up with.

Kain interrupted them, "We need to go see the Elder. Can you take us to him?"

Porom spoke up, "Sure thing Kain…wait you're a dragoon…are you…"

"I am the Kain who traveled to the moon with Cecil if that's what you're after."

"Oh…well come on we'll take you to see Elder."

The Elder of Mysidia had been looking over the tablets for several hours when Kain was becoming to restless to wait any longer. "Have you made any progress Elder," Kain asked him?

"This language is very old it will take some time to translate, and I'll never make progress with you interrupting me." Elder responded.

"I wish to return to Baron…I…have not been there is some time." Kain was somewhat amazed at himself, he had not wanted to return home yet but Cecil had to be warned about these knights and he had to see them again.

His thoughts were interrupted by the Elder, "I understand Kain…go see Cecil…you can use serpent road"

"I hope he will welcome me," Kain said.

Elder looked back at Kain, "Cecil will accept you…I know it."

On Kain's way to the serpent road Ryanna stopped him, "I'm going with you."

"Why," Kain asked?

"Well I've got nothing to do here, I might as well go with you," Ryanna replied.

"Well come on then," Kain said.

"Where are we going anyway?" Ryanna asked.

Kain just rolled his eyes "Baron, to see the king."

"You know the king of Baron?"

"We used to be best friends." Kain answered.

"Oh. So what…"

"No" Kain said.

"You don't even know what I'm going to ask," Ryanna began.

"But I already know that I won't answer it." Kain ignored Ryanna's annoyed facial expression "Well are you coming or not."


	3. The Dark Elf Wars Chapter 3

The Dark Elf War

Chapter Three

Dragon Lords

Rydia had been bouncing from one place to another for two and a half years. After the end of the crystal war everyone else had a place to be. Cecil and Rosa had a kingdom to rule so did Yang and Ayan; Edward had Damcyan to rebuild. Kain was gone off to prove himself worthy to be a dragoon. And then there was Edge, he would have gladly let her stay with him after Cecil and Rosa's wedding, but she was still confused about how she felt about him. He had still been brash and self centered last time she saw him though she knew that there was more to him than that. The main problem was that even though she was physically 18 she was still mentally about 8 years old. That had been almost three years ago though. Afterwards she had returned to the land of summoned monsters, for good so she thought, but she felt out of place there, they cared for her but she wanted human contact again. Leviathan and Asura seemed to think something was wrong with her, but she just thought that she needed some time to herself. So she left, it was about six months after the crystal war and thanks to new equipment that had been sent to the dwarfs from the upper world they had been clearing areas of lava flow. The dwarfs had opened paths to both the summoned monsters cave and Tomera. She had stayed with the dwarves for a while but with the King Giott there and all the people from the upper world coming down all the time she was afraid that someone who knew her would recognize her. So she went up to look at the ruins of Bab-il from there she had stayed with the sylphs for awhile and finally she ended up in Tomera for some time. Very few people recognized her as one of the heroes of the Crystal War and she stayed out of the way. By this time Cecil, who had received a message from Leviathan about Rydia's disappearance, was searching for her. Some people even came to Tomera looking for her, but instead of going to them for some reason she snuck out of the town before any of them found her. In the back of her mind she knew she was acting odd but she couldn't seem to stop herself. That was when she decided she needed to return to the upper world, she would go to Cecil to let him know she was okay. Airships were now flying trips between the Dwarf castle and Agart so after traveling to the Dwarf castle she rode the ferry to Agart where she stayed for the next three months unable to leave for some reason.

"This is silly," Rydia thought to herself "I should not be afraid to see my friends."

She knew it was true but another part of her mind would then say, but they have lives of there own now, Important lives, all you've done is wonder around and do nothing for the past two years. Your friends are kings and queens what are you? She had been over this in her mind a thousand times in the last three months. She no longer noticed how that part of her mind sounded very little like her. She walked out of the inn and then out toward the docks. Most countries or villages had tended to keep to themselves before the crystal war, and Cecil had felt that this was one of the reasons that Golbez had been able to cause so much damage while he was controlled. It wasn't until just before the Giant of Bab-il was activated that the countries had banded together to fight and it had almost been to late. After Cecil had become king he did everything he could to keep those fragile alliances from breaking down. He felt that making transportation easier between towns would help strengthen the alliances. The docks had been built about two years ago by Baron so that Agart would have more connection to the outer world. It had become a way station and trading post for men and dwarves alike traveling between the upper world and the underground. It had more than tripled in size in the last two years. A few years ago the green haired girl would have drawn a lot of attention in this town but now she was merely another traveler. When Rydia arrived at the docks she was intending to book passage to Baron as she had done almost every day since she had arrived. Every day she would always become distracted and before she would know it the day was done and she had wasted it looking at clothes in some shop or some other equally useless endeavor. She was determined that to day would be different.

"I'm going to leave this bloody city today!!" she shouted at no one in particular as she walked down the street. A few people looked in her direction but soon went on about their business. She was angry primarily because she couldn't figure out why she was still in Agart. She knew she was acting strangely, but every time she tried to figure it out she soon found herself thinking about other things entirely, usually things that made no since like getting new dress or getting her hair done. "She was not some pampered noble women, for Bahumut's sake," she had never wasted her time thinking about fashion before why is she now.

Suddenly she realized she was walking away from the docks. "Crystal's light, I'm doing it again." She realized somehow that if she didn't act quickly she would probably be here another day. She quickly turned around and ran to the nearest docked ship.

"Where is this ship bound," Rydia demanded of a large sailor who was obviously the first mate.

He jumped when she spoke to him, "we're leaving for Eblan in a few hours but there is no room for more passengers."

"Eblan," Rydia groaned to herself. But she knew that if she didn't go on this ship she wouldn't make it to another ship. "Perhaps Edge could help me sort things out," she thought to herself. "Listen, I will pay you ten-thousand Gil to take me to Eblan,"

"Ten…thousand?!!! Well that would be something wouldn't it. Well I'll not be taking you with out the money, give it here."

Rydia threw a bag of money at the man, he opened it and eyed the coins suspiciously. "only five thousand is in this bag…what are you trying to pull."

"You'll get the rest when we reach Eblan," The first mate looked ready to object but she broke him off. "Five thousand is already ten times your normal price for passage. You have my word you will have the rest in Eblan. In the mean time I wouldn't try to take the money from me if I were you. I am a black wizard of great talent and I could burn this whole ship to the ground in a minute." She didn't mention her calling ability since most people thought callers were a myth anyway.

The first mate looked her over and then slowly nodded his head. "I think I can wait for the five thousand till Eblan," He laughed uneasily and said, "Not like there's any place to spend on the open ocean any way.

"Fine, Now if you would show me to my cabin" Rydia said.

Once she was in her cabin she had time to reflect on what happened on the dock. Somehow she had overcome the force that was controlling her enough to book passage and even threaten to burn a ship to ashes. "Something is trying to control me," she thought, "But why, and how was I able to resist it," she thought to herself. Soon, however, she found herself thinking about what kind of clothes were fashionable in Eblan at this time of year. She knew there were more important things to think about but somehow she never got back to them.

Obaram knew he was in trouble. The girl had managed to leave Agart and of all places was heading towards Eblan. That job had been assigned to Naeya. He knew she would not be happy. There was nothing for it though he had to let her know. He only hoped that he could keep the high lord from discovering his failure before he could turn the situation to his advantage. Then he could simply play this off as if he had planed it all along. He reached out to her telepathically and waited for a response.

"What do you want Obaram," a voice returned.

"The girl has got on a ship," Obaram responded.

"What concern is it of mine that you cannot do your job," Naeya responded.

"The ship heads for Eblan," Obaram winced at the response he knew would come.

"What!!! You fool this could ruin everything," Naeya said.

"There was nothing I could do, you forget that she is a summoner and…," Obaram began.

"And you forget that she is your responsibility, our master is quick to reward those who serve well, but even faster to punish failure."

"Still it would be worse to be discovered. Kail would be quick to try to take advantage of our failure if he can, thanks to the betrayer our numbers are not what they once were and the high lord is even more suspicious of us than he used to be," Obaram said.

Naeya thought about this for a second. "What you say is true; still do you really think any of those pathetic monsters she has bonded with could since one of our power, maybe leviathan but still…"

"Leviathan is not our only worry…I have been probing her summoning bonds carefully for the last few months and I believe she had bonded to Bahamut as well," Obaram said.

"Bahamut…bonded to a summoner, are you sure; I did not even know such a thing was possible. If he were to become aware of our plans it would prove difficult, however she is obviously growing resistant to your manipulations, and that could create problems in Eblan." Naeya said.

Obaram sighed, "Humans were so easy to manipulate, they are stronger somehow. And she is more resistant than most."

"Perhaps her time with the summoned has made her more aware," Naeya suggested.

"It's more than that, you know as well as I that subversion requires a knowledge of what the person or people desires, for the life of me I can't figure out what she wants. I try to fill her head with trivial things like clothes or something, but she becomes more suspicious every passing day."

"Even without being able to probe to deeply you must have learned something in the last six months," Naeya said.

"No I…wait there is something that might help. She has feeling for the king of Eblan," Obaram said excitedly. "She tries to pretend she doesn't but she thinks of him all the time."

"Hmm perhaps we could use that to our advantage, we will talk again when she arrives in Eblan and perhaps I can turn you failure into an advantage."

With that the connection with Naeya was severed. "Hmm, she thinks to maneuver herself into a better position with Ishmael," Obaram thought to himself "she won't act on her own, but she will try to take credit for it or at least discredit me for failing to control the girl. Something will have to be done about her." Obaram was certain they would win but he meant to be the high lord's right hand when they did win.

Rosa slowly drifted back into consciousness. She was vaguely aware of several people standing over her. One of them looked like Yang's wife Ayan. Suddenly, the memories of last night flooded back to her. She had tried to combat the dark magic that had poisoned Yang. Just remembering it made her nauseous. It was the blackest magic she had ever seen, and she had once fought Zeromus, the embodiment of hatred. She fought down the urge to vomit as she realized that it had almost killed her.

Suddenly Ayan spoke to her, "Are you alright."

"I…I think so, is Yang…" Rosa managed weakly.

"He's unconscious but improving."

The white wizard next to Ayan spoke up, "I watched you with yang last night, I've never seen such a massive amount of power used by one person." His voice was filled with awe.

Rosa slowly set up, "I…I was almost trapped by the weave of the spell…it was a very powerful spell."

"Trapped by the weaves?" Ayan asked.

"It's difficult to explain," Rosa began, "a spell is a complicated thing, the analogy of a weave works well. A spell of the kind that was in Yang's head is difficult to counter, one cannot simply destroy the spell, doing so could kill the person under the spells effect. I had to pull the spell apart, Pull in the right place and the spell collapses on itself, the wrong place and almost any thing can happen. I almost got trapped the spell trying to find a way to pull it apart." Her strength was returning now and she got out of the bed. "It was the most evil thing I have ever seen; I don't know what wove the spell but it was quite powerful."

Ayan thought about this for a seconded, "Rosa I should tell that the castle is under a siege."

"What? When did this happen?" Rosa asked.

"They surrounded the castle just before morning; they have demanded our total surrender." Ayan said.

"Did Cid take the airship to warn Cecil?" Rosa asked.

"He was going to but the long range drive was sabotaged, we sent a runner last night to Damcyan but it will take at least a week." Ayan said.

Rosa picked up her bow from the corner, "I should go and see Cid then, there has to be a way to hold them off for a week."

"He's up on the walls. Are you sure you're strong enough?" Ayan looked at Rosa appraisingly.

"Thanks, and I'll be fine," Rosa said as she opened the door.

She walked down the corridor to towards the castle walls. She had told Ayan they could hold a week but if the same people that attacked Yang were the ones attacking the castle she didn't see how they could. Finally she came to the door leading out to the castle walls; it didn't take her long to find Cid.

"Rosa you're up…how is Yang," Cid looked her over.

"All he needs is rest, he should be fine, and you can stop looking at me like I'm about to collapse. I'm fine, though it may be a day or two before I cast any more spells."

Cid looked at least partially convinced, "Well as you can see we've got something of a problem."

Rosa could see the army surrounding the castle, it was huge, and easily three times the number of soldiers in the castle with siege engines as well. The bulk of the enemy was made up of goblins, not strong by themselves because they had the brains of rocks, but the rest of the army was made up of humans. "Or are they," she thought. Goblins hate humans, why would they be helping them. Now that she looked at them closer they didn't seem quite right. They were about the same size as humans but something about them was inhuman. "What are their demands?" Rosa asked.

"Their commander came to us but an hour ago he told us that we either surrender the castle by night fall or they will take it by tomorrow morning anyway. By the look of that army they are not making a simple boast," Cid looked grim.

"What are we going to do," Rosa asked.

"Well we still have an advantage; the airship is still ok for short flights just not long ones so I can use it against them when they attack, it could give us the edge we need," Cid said.

"I hope so," Rosa said as she looked over the army camped in front of the castle.

Kain had been dreading this moment since he had left the mountain, but somehow he was here in front of castle Baron for the first time in three years. Still he had to let Cecil know about the problems in Mysidia and the strange tablet that had been unearthed. "At least Ryanna is with me, that will help," he thought to himself. "Where did that come from," he thought just a quickly. He and Ryanna finally had gotten across the draw bridge to the castle and a large looking guard stopped them.

"What business do you have at the castle," the guard asked.

Kain looked the guard over carefully, "I need an audience with King Cecil Harvey," he asked in a voice just as tough as the guards.

"Tell me what your name is and where you come from and I will see if the King will see you," The guard responded.

"My name is Kain Highwind and I have just come from Mysidia, tell Cecil I have important news for him," Kain said.

If the guard was offended at Kain calling the king by his first name he didn't show it all his said was, "I shall let the king know." He turned to walk away.

Kain stopped him, "Has Baron changed so much in three years that you will not allow us to wait inside the castle walls."

"I'm sorry but the king ordered an increase in security yesterday since there was an attempted assassination on the king of Fabul," then the guard hurried off.

Ten minuets later the guard returned. He was looking at Kain with a great bit more respect than he had earlier. "Kain Highwind…I had no idea…" he caught himself stammering, "The king will see you, if you will follow me to his study."

Kain and Ryanna were led through the castle until they stood in front of a large wooden door. The guard knocked and when a voice inside said come in the guard opened the door and motioned Kain and Ryanna inside.

"Hello Cecil," Kain said. "I have…"

He got no further than that because Cecil had leapt out of his chair. Much to Kain's surprise Cecil came over and gave Kain a hug.

"Kain…it's good to see you again," Cecil said.

"Is it?" Kain asked.

"Of course it is, Rosa and I have missed you, she's not here right now she's in Fabul caring for Yang, she'll be awful mad when she finds that she missed your homecoming," Cecil said.

"Homecoming? Why are you being so nice Cecil after what happened…I thought…you'd never want to see me again," Kain looked at Cecil questioningly.

"Kain, despite what happened I am still your friend, and…I have forgiven you. I hope one day you will forgive yourself as well," Cecil smiled at Kain. "You said you had information for me what is so important that you left your mountain to tell me."

"Cecil, this is Ryanna," Kain began. Cecil looked at her as if he had just now realized she was in the room. "I met her and another man on Mount Ordeals."

Kain told Cecil of the men that attacked them, their flight to Mysidia and the mysterious tablet that the Elder was trying to translate.

"This is an interesting tale you tell me Kain. You said the people that attacked you carried forward swept swords?" Cecil asked.

"Yes, it seemed they were made for close quarters fighting and they had strange markings on the blade," Kain added.

"Some of the reports I received from Fabul mentioned the attackers on mount Hobbs using the same kind of weapon, I wonder if there is a connection," Cecil said.

Ryanna spoke up, "I think they must be connected, it doesn't seem like a coincidence to me."

"She's probably right Cecil, I have a feeling these things must be connected," Kain added.

"Well perhaps we'll know more about the situation when Rosa and Cid return from Fabul in a day or two," Cecil said finally. "You two must be tired from traveling Serpent Road. You'll stay in the castle tonight." Cecil looked at Kain a moment and then smiled. "Should I have the maid prepare one or two rooms?"

"Two rooms will be fine," Kain shot back. He could feel himself blushing. "Damn," he swore, "it's stupid to blush over that." But he kept blushing anyway.

Cecil stood, "I have some things to see to but…I'd like to talk to you tonight Kain…we have much to catch up on."

"O…Okay," Kain said.

A couple of hours later Kain had taken a bath and was standing on the balcony of his room out of his armor he was wearing a plain set of clothes that the maid had given him. There was a knock at the door. "Come in," Kain said as he walked in from the balcony.

Ryanna walked in to the room.

"What happened between you two," She asked Kain, not needing to say who the other person she was talking about was.

"I don't want to talk about it right now," Kain replied.

"Well when will you want to talk about it?!" Ryanna was suddenly angry. "You never tell me anything about your past. I know, I know, you don't like to talk about it, but I'm trying to be your friend and you keep shutting me out."

Kain studied her for a moment, "I've hurt you haven't I." He sighed and sat down in a chair. "The Crystals know I hurt to many people already."

Ryanna sat down next to him, "Ever since I met you on the mountain all those months ago I could tell you were running from something, maybe yourself, I just want to help you."

"I know you do, but well you're right I am running from something. I don't know if I'll ever be able to face my past. I've done things…bad things." Ryanna actually saw fear on Kain's face. "Please don't ask me to tell you about them, you…you might hate me and I wouldn't want that."

Ryanna spoke, "do you have that little faith in me." Kain started to speak but she waved him off, "I would never hate you Kain, maybe you've hurt others but you've always fought by my side honorably and I am happy to call you a friend. I trust you, Kain, and know this someday you'll have to stop running and on that day you're going to have to trust someone…trust them to not judge you by your past but by your present."

Kain smiled, "Are you a prophet then?" he asked.

"No it's just common sense." Ryanna turned to walk out but before she left she said one more thing, "I promise I won't pressure you to tell me about your past again, but I be waiting for you to tell me when you're ready." With that she was gone leaving a very confused Kain behind.

"She trusts me?" he thought.

Kain was already confused enough but he had promised Cecil they would talk so he went off to find him. He found Cecil in his room.

"Kain come on in," Cecil said when he saw him standing in the doorway. "Let's go out on the balcony…We just had it built a few months ago. How do you like it?"

"It's lovely," Kain said dryly. "Why did you want to see me?"

"Why to catch up just like I said," Cecil said.

"We can't go back to the way things were Cecil you know as well as I," Kain said. "Things have changed to much…we've changed to much."

"Your right Kain we can't go back, but…we can go forward, our old friendship is gone but we can have a new friendship," Cecil said.

"A new friendship," Kain thought about it for a seconded.

"Kain, sometimes you just have to take a chance and trust someone," Cecil said.

Kain laughed, something he was unaccustomed to doing.

"What's so funny?" Cecil asked.

"Ryanna said something similar to that to me earlier," Kain said.

"She's a wise woman," Cecil said in a humorous tone, then becoming serious, "Kain be careful around her."

"What do you mean?" Kain asked.

"She's hiding something, I don't know what but she is," Cecil said.

"You think she's evil?" Kain looked doubtful.

Cecil shook his head, "No, No, Not evil I'm sure, she is a good person of that I am sure, but she is more than what she seems, remember that."

"I will," Kain said.

They stayed up late that night talking like they hadn't done since they were children. Kain was almost able to forget about his past that night.

Yang regained consciousness five hours before sunset and after eating he was able to walk around on his own though he was still a bit weak. As the sun set the leader of the enemy sent a runner to find out if they intended to surrender or not. Yang told them that the runner that he could tell his captain that Fabul would not surrender to the likes of them. The karate fighters had been preparing for battle all day as soon as the runner had left the portico was lowered. Cid went to prepare the airship for launch. The goblins started moving siege engines into place against the castle walls. The Baronian archers that had come on the airship sent volley after volley into the mass but every time one fell another took his place. Wizards also tried to strike at the mass of goblins, and they started pouring hot oil over the walls onto the siege engines and setting them on fire. It didn't matter the goblins were in a frenzy they would climb burning ladders to get to the top of the walls. Suddenly the Enterprise lifted over the castle wall and set to work bombing the goblins and the siege engines. Cid set to destroying the siege engines that the goblins held in reserve. Slowly but surely they were wining. If they were able to destroy the siege engines the force could not take the castle before Cecil could send reinforcements. This went on for some time then suddenly a shape somehow blacker than the night around it emerged, and went towards the airship. Cid was in shock when he realized that he was looking at a dragon. This dragoon was twice the size of any dragon he had ever seen. The dragon looked at the airship and then spoke.

Its voice was rough and harsh, "Foolish Human, the skies belong to US; I am Kail and I will teach you a human's proper place."

It launched itself at the airship, Cid managed to turn the ship to the side but the dragon sunk its claws into the side of the ship pulling out a hunk of the hull. It breathed fire into the gash and the ship burst into flame. Cid knew the ship was going down he fought to control the descent. It spun and turned until it crashed into the middle of the courtyard of the castle. Rosa came running along with other who had water to put out the fire. She crawled through the wreckage of the ship looking for Cid. She found him injured but still breathing.

"Thank the crystals," she breathed.

The wounds Cid had sustained would have proven fatal but Rosa was the most powerful white wizard in the world, she could heal anything short of complete death. She began chanting a powerful spell of healing and soon Cid's wounds appeared as nothing more than year old scars.

Cid sat up and rubbed his arm. "Could a sworn that arm was broken," then he glanced up at Rosa, "Well I guess I got you to thank for this," he said holding up his healed arm. He looked around and then said, "Crap enterprise is toasted; it'll never fly again."

Rosa hugged him, "I thought you were dead."

"Me, nah you can't kill me I'm to tough," Cid laughed.

Truly, however, there wasn't much reason for laughing. The goblins had been thinned out a bit and the dragon having destroyed the airship seemed satisfied and was no where to be seen, but the other soldiers that looked like men had joined in the fighting. They were stronger and more dangerous than the goblins and far smarter. Within an hour the enemy was fighting on the wall and it was just a matter of time before they were fighting in the streets.

Yang was commanding the battle from the top of the wall giving orders keeping the lines closed up, trying to prepare for the next assault on the walls. He knew they could not hold back the enemy until tomorrow morning at the latest. Something had to be done to save the people of Fabul, and there was only one thing he could do.

He called one of the guards over to him, "Lin, I want you to go find my wife and the two people from Baron and tell them I need to see them."

"Right away sir," The guard responded and then he was gone.

The guard returned with all of them a bit later.

"We aren't going to be able to hold them more than a day at most." Yang said finally.

Cid looked sad, "I figured as much. What do you want us to do?"

"Organize the all the people in the castle. They will sneak out the tunnel; it leads to the mountain range west of here. You should be safe there. I don't know about these others, but the goblins will not go anywhere near those mountains for some reason." Yang said.

Cid thought about it for a moment, "It's risky Yang."

"We have no other options though. The tunnel is over 100 miles long and wide enough for ten people to walk abreast of one another. It's safe; it was built by the dwarves after all. We will stay and hold off the army as long as we can. Once through destroy the entrance to the cave so they can't follow you." Yang said.

"Honey, you must come with us," Ayan suddenly interjected.

"No my place is with my soldiers," Yang said stubbornly.

Rosa was shaking her head, "Yang you are not a soldier any more you are a king. As a soldier it was your job to die to protect the people, as a king you must live to help the people rebuild."

"She is right sir," Lin interjected, "We will die to protect you, but you must leave with the people so that Fabul can be rebuilt someday."

Yang looked irritated, "Your right, I know you are, but I don't have to like it."

It took time to organize the people but soon they began marching through the cavern, the soldiers on the walls fought back wave after wave of the goblins and the black cloaked soldiers with the forward swept swords, they held the castle almost until night fall the next day, much longer than any thought possible. By the time the enemy killed the last soldier and took the castle they found nothing but the sound of the wind whistling through empty rocks.

About five thousand refugees found themselves setting on the side of an unnamed mountain. The sun had just set as the last of the Refugees came out of the cave. Some of the people were discussing the best way to close the tunnel but before any decision was made Cid had already decided on a course of action. He walked over the entrance and unloosed his great war-hammer. The hammer was magical, imbued with the power of Earth magic. He swung the hammer against the ground in front of the cave and the earth split under it. The cave opening quickly collapsed.

Suddenly a black shape covered the sun. Cid looked up and saw the dragon flying over them. "Crap," he said.

The refugees were already running. Rosa and Ayan and Yang came running up to Cid. The dragon landed in front of them. DID YOU THINK TO GET AWAY FROM ME LITTLE HUMAN," the dragon snarled. Cid ran at the dragon with his hammer raised, "this is for Enterprise." The dragon knocked Cid aside and he smashed into a rock wall. The dragon turned towards Rosa, "I WILL ENJOY KILLING YOU, WIFE OF DRAGON BAIN." Rosa chanted her most powerful spell, "Holy" she shouted. A white globe formed in her hand and she threw it at the dragon the globe turned in to a chain of globes like a string of pearls and they slammed into the dragon. It was shocked at the force of the blow but it came towards them anyway. Yang stepped in front of Rosa to receive the dragons blow but before it could strike the ground collapsed under it and it slid down the side of the mountain. It was injured and one his wings was broken making flight impossible, but it began climbing back up the hill immediately.

Cid was back on his feet, he had used the hammer to break the ground. "Run" he shouted to them. "I'll hold him off until you get away."

"No Cid you can't," Rosa shouted.

"Rosa I'll do what I must, maybe I'll bring the whole mountain down around him, I'd like to see him get out of that dragon or no."

He did not mention that bringing down the mountain on the dragon would kill him too. Rosa was about to say just that when Yang stopped her, "We must run Rosa, he sacrifices himself for us and Fabul, do not let his sacrifice be in vain. She turned to follow, but as she ran she cried harder that she ever had before.

The dragon made it back to where Cid stood. It was more wary of Cid this time knowing about the magic of the hammer. "HAVE YOUR FRIENDS LEFT YOU HUMAN," the dragon asked.

"Nah I sent them on ahead, they were just getting in my way anyways," Cid said sounding braver that he felt.

"YOU THINK TO SAVE YOUR FRIENDS, HOW TOUCHING."

The dragon shot fire out of his mouth and Cid dogged it barley showing more agility that one would think a man his age possessed.

"Time to die dragon," Cid said as he hefted his hammer. The hammer slammed into the side of the mountain, sending a crack up it all the way to the summit. Cid did mean to bring the mountain down on the dragon. The dragon ran towards Cid in a blind rage. Cid brought the hammer down again, and the dragon realized what was happening as the mountain began to crumble."

"NO YOU CANNOT, YOU WILL DIE HERE AS WELL YOU HAVE SEALED BOTH OUR FATES."

"It is worth dying to see that my friends are safe," Cid said calmly.

The dragon had never understood the human willingness to sacrifice themselves for others; he would stab even those closets to him in the back if it meant some gain. "NO, THIS CANNOT HAPPEN TO ME, I AM KAIL A DRAGON LORD, RULER OF A THOUSAND WORLDS, I CANNOT DIE BY THE HANDS OF ONE HUMAN…"

The rest was lost in a tumble of stones as the top of the mountain slid down on top of both him and Cid. Then the mountain was still. Farther down the mountain a group of refugees running for their lives saw the mountain crumble and the dragon die, Rosa watched and cried.

Next chapter: Rydia meets Edge in Eblan. Rosa, Yang, Ayan and the refugees are on the run from the goblin and Mordihel army, and an interesting discovery is made about the identity of Ryanna.


	4. The Dark Elf Wars Chapter 4

The Dark Elf War

Chapter Four

Eldihel

Naeya sat quietly and waited in the night gloom of the forest. She was waiting for someone. "You're late," she said, her voice doing nothing to disguise her annoyance.

Obaram stepped out of the trees. "Hmm, that body suits you, it seems quite lovely by human standards…I guess."

Naeya made a face, "Humans disgust me, even more than you do. I can't wait to get out of this body. The seal is weakening; soon I will be free to return to my original form, so I would appreciate it if you would refrain from useless flattery."

Obaram smiled at this, he didn't like Naeya much, in truth he didn't like anyone much, save himself. However, Naeya was always direct and to the point, and that was a rarity among their kind.

"How have you faired with the woman?" Naeya asked.

It was Obaram's turn to look disgusted. "More poorly than I had hoped, she has gotten harder to control every day and she will arrive in Eblan by boat in the morning." Obaram sighed.

"How could one simple human give you so much trouble Obaram?"

Obaram was loathe to reveal how complete his failure was but it would be worse if he tried to hide it, "It gets worse," he said finally.

"Go on," Naeya said impatiently.

It seems I finally lost the ability to influence her at all, it happened all at once yesterday, I have tried to reestablish contact but I had no success, I believe I am being blocked somehow."

"The betrayer?" Naeya said, her eyes narrowing, refusing to name the one who had betrayed them and helped the dragons to be sealed.

"Perhaps," said Obaram.

"He could create problems for us if he is returning."

"There was nothing I could do," Obaram said.

"Do you think that will matter to the High Emperor," Naeya said, "well she is out of your control so she could be a danger to my plans. I will put her out of the way."

"How, she is a powerful wizard, and killing her would surely alert the betrayer if he is truly the one interfering."

"It is simple," Naeya said, "I will enchant a cell in the dungeon to prevent the channeling of magic, and hold her there until I can get the swords from the king."

Obaram shrugged his shoulders, "why are we doing this anyway, I mean what are the chances that those swords the king has are really THE swords." Obaram said.

"Are you going to tell the High Emperor he is he is wasting his time," asked Naeya.

Obaram lost several shades of color at that thought but he did not answer.

"Obaram, you may not like it but we are playing the roles that the High Emperor gave us. If he feels these tasks are important then we will do them." Naeya finished.

"I know," Obaram began.

"Well then stop whining like a…"

"Both of you shut up," a voice spoke into their minds.

"High Emperor," they both shouted and then fell to their faces.

"I grow tired of your petty arguments, we must move up our plans, Naeya, you must retrieve the swords in three days, Obaram I am sending you to reawaken the Giant of Bab-il." The High Lord spoke.

"Why the change in plans great master," Obaram asked.

"I want Eblan off the map, their military force is seconded only to Baron and the giant will do well to eliminate that threat, also I need the giant as a distraction, it seems Kail became impatient."

"What did he do?" asked Naeya.

"He surrounded the Kingdom of Fabul and tried to take the crystal there, It almost worked too, but the humans had built an escape route into their castle and they escaped, Kail caught up with them but one of the humans had a powerful earth magic with him and he brought an entire mountain down on them both."

"So Kail is dead," Obaram sighed, "Though he was almost equal in power to us high lords he always was too hasty."

"Damn," swore Naeya "We expended much power to get Kail out and now he is dead."

"Do not worry, "The High Emperor said "This will work to our advantage, The Mordihel still pursue the king of Fabul and when they catch him they will get the crystal, and I have already ordered the retrieval of the crystal of Fire, we will soon be free of this seal that has bound us for so long, we will be unstoppable."

Rydia stood on the top of a precipice overlooking a huge city built right into the side of a mountain.

"Am I dreaming?" She thought, "I was on ship wasn't I?"

The quiet city suddenly changed. It was engulfed in flames, a huge battle raged all around her. She could feel the heat of the flames leaping up from the town. Humans and Lunars and another race of people which did not know all fought against huge dragons and warriors carrying strange looking swords.

Suddenly the scene changed again. She stood by herself in a forest. Rydia suddenly that she was no longer in her own body but the body of a large dragon. A voice spoke from somewhere behind her. "Have you sided with the humans?"

"Yes," she answered. She turned to see an even larger dragon in front of her. It was then she realized that she could not control the dragons actions, it was as if she were watching a play but instead of being in the audience she was seeing it through the eyes of one of the actors.

"So betrayer you have chosen the weak over the strong."

She spoke back. "I did not choose weakness I chose what is right. You pretend we are gods. When I think of what you destroyed…of what I helped you destroy." She could feel her head shake sadly. "I cannot let you do such things again. I am…was your friend, but we've all changed into something evil, I cannot abide by it."

"I trusted you," the other dragon roared, he then shook his head sadly, "You have made your choice, our friend ship means nothing to me now. Next time we meet you and I will be enemies."

"I know," the figure in which Rydia resided said.

With that the huge dragon took skyward and left.

Rydia woke up and bolted upright in a cold sweat. The gentle waves of the ocean rocked the ship back and forth making her feel a little sea sick from sitting up so quickly. The first thing she noticed was that her head was clear. She could see clearly how foggy her mind had been in the last few months. What had caused her mind to become so clouded she wondered. Was it magic? Certainly no magic she knew of. What was even more important than how was who and why. She was also wondering why it had cleared up now, was it the vision she had? Who had sent that vision anyway? She was sure it was some kind of vision since she wasn't in the habit of dreaming that she was a dragon. She put her hand up to her face, "If only I knew what it means, I'm sure it's something important."

The ship was now coming into port. She thanked the captain for a safe journey and the headed towards the castle. When she got to the gates she noticed that the guards were giving her unsettling looks, but she wasn't going to turn around just because of the way some idiot looked at her.

"I am Rydia the Summ…" She began.

"We know who you are," the first guard said.

"We've been ordered to revive you properly," the second guard said.

If Rydia had been paying attention she would have noticed the sarcasm in the guard's voice, but instead she just wondered how Edge had known she was coming. She walked past them towards the castle gates only to find that a meeting with Edge would have to wait because one of the guards had knocked her unconscious.

"Did you have to hit her so hard?" asked the first guard.

The second guard looked annoyed, "Hey, you heard what Adrelea said, she's a criminal and a powerful sorceress, I don't want her waking up and turning me into a frog or something, now help me carry her to the dungeon."

"Alright," the first guard grumbled, "but I don't like Adrelea."

"Don't say things like that, you could loose you head for saying something like that," the second guard said.

After the refuges descended from the mountain it became a mad dash for safety. People thought if they could make it to the forests they could hide from the army. Yang had managed to get a few retired soldiers to act as scouts, and thanks to their reports Yang now new that the army that had taken Fabul was on their trail and only a few days behind. The army was better organized and better equipped than a bunch of farmers and merchants running for their lives so he knew they would catch them eventually. "It'll probably be two or three days before they start catching up to people and killing them." Yang said to Rosa.

"What will we do?" Rosa asked.

"The only thing we can do, we keep running," Yang sighed to himself, it wasn't in his nature to run from a battle but he wasn't dumb enough take on an army by himself. At least not with out a defensible position he thought as he grinned to himself.

"Perhaps some may survive by hiding in the forests, were not but a day or two from them," Rosa said.

"That could buy us some time, but what we really need is an army," said yang.

"Perhaps Cecil has gotten our message by now," Rosa suggested.

"Perhaps," Yang said.

Kain had spent the last week training with the new recruits in the castle. He needed something to do with his time, and they needed training. He was no longer a servant to the Baronian crown, but the veterans in the castle remembered him and were happy to have him help train the recruits. He spent most of his evenings with Ryanna. He liked spending time with her but sometimes she could drive him nuts. She had promised not to ask about his past again, but she seemed determined to bend that promise almost to breaking. She never asked, but she sure dropped hints. The other thing that infuriated him was that, in truth, she was almost as elusive about her past as he was about his. Perhaps she was just doing it to get back at him, but he had a feeling it was more than that. He wondered what she was hiding.

WHACK! Kain knocked the last guard to the ground with a blow to the head. Five of the better recruits at the castle decided they had enough of Kain's attitude.

The five came up to him after training and one said, "I've had enough of your attitude Dragoon. I've heard that you were held in high regard when you served under the previous King, but I think I could take you easy."

"You've had enough have you?" said Kain, "Well if you think you're better than me I'll fight you…all of you at once if you like."

"You'll fight all of us at once?" the recruit asked suspiciously.

"Sure," said Kain.

It took Kain one minute to knock them all out with a wooden practice spear.

"They won't be so sure of their abilities from now on," Kain thought, "maybe it'll make them cautious enough to keep them alive." Kain turned to some of the other soldiers. "Take them back to the Barracks, let them rest, but don't allow the white wizards heal them, I want them to remember those bruises." He was just about to go back to training when he heard the castle gates opening. He heard a guard say something about someone coming from the Serpent Road. Kain left the training area and went to see what was going on. The Elder of Mysidia was coming through the courtyard when he got there.

"Hello Kain," the Elder called out when he saw Kain and waved him over.

"What brings you to Baron?" Kain asked.

"I've translated that tablet that you and Ryanna brought with you, well actually I've only translated a little, but it is a very old language and I won't be able to translate more without some help," the Elder said. He saw the recruits dragging their unconscious friends towards the barracks and raised an eyebrow questioningly at Kain.

"They thought they were as good as me, I proved them wrong," Kain shrugged.

"I see, well you should come to see Cecil with me, you found the tablet so you should here what I have to say."

When they got to the throne room Cecil greeted the Elder, "It's good to see you again; it's been too long since you last visited, though something tells me you aren't here for a friendly visit."

"I have translated part of the tablet that Kain and Ryanna found; I thought you should know what it says," the Elder said.

"Let me send someone for Ryanna, she should be here too," Cecil said as he motioned one of the guards to go located her.

Several minutes later Ryanna appeared.

"What's up?" she asked.

"Elder has translated part of the tablet," Kain said.

"Why don't we go to my study to talk," Cecil suggested. Turning to the guards he said, "Make sure we are not disturbed."

"Yes sir," they said as they left.

"You say you translated the tablet that Ryanna's friend found," Cecil said.

The Elder sat down in a chair and thought a moment, "Well only some of it, It is a very old language. It took me days to find anything in my library about that could help me translate it."

"What, but the only library larger than the Mysidian library is in the land of the summoned monsters," Kain said.

"Yes but the language on this tablet is extremely old, it comes from a time before the Lunar moon appeared. The only reason the tablet still exists is because of some sort of enchantment of preservation that was placed on it."

"Some kind of enchantment?" Cecil asked.

"I really couldn't tell what kind of enchantment it was, it wasn't any kind of magic I am aware of," the Elder looked troubled, "Those ruins on Ordeals are very old, older than I imagined. Tell me Ryanna, what led Duncan to believe he would find anything of value in the ruins, and how did he find this, We Mysidian wizards have searched those ruins many times and have never found anything to give us a clue to who lived there and you two found this in just a few months."

"Duncan found some old manuscripts that pointed to something on Mt. Ordeals, as to how he found it; it was location was protected by powerful magic, he removed the magic.

"Hmm, I never sensed any magic there," Elder half mumbled to himself.

"What does it say?" Ryanna asked.

Kain noticed that Ryanna was quick to change the subject but said nothing.

"I suppose I should get to that," said the Elder, "First I should let you know that the book I used to translate it was rather limited in resources, the writer wasn't even sure of who spoke the language. He seemed to think it came from one of two groups, one was called Mordihel and the other was called Eldihel."

Cecil's eyes went wide, "Eldihel, isn't that the ancients gave to…"

"Elves, yes that's right," Elder finished.

"Then what are Mordihel?" Kain asked.

"As best the writer could explain, they are like the other side of a coin, very similar to Eldihel but that they are evil."

"Dark elves," Cecil said, he shivered at the thought, he had fought one once and was almost killed for his trouble.

"Anyway," the Elder began, "Most of the tablet was incomprehensible, I was only able to translate a few words here and there, what I did figure out was that a great battle was fought on Ordeals and it destroyed the city there. Some beings of great power were trapped some how. The only part I was able to translate much of was a section at the end. It's a prophecy of some sort."

"What does it say?" Cecil asked.

"This was what I translated,

Bindings will not last forever.

One day the _nagul areunegeth _will return

I was unable to translate those two words, they name something but I do not know what."

"What does any of this mean, why would those soldiers be after a tablet that no one can read," Cecil asked. He looked as if he would say more when he noticed that the Elder was staring at Ryanna closely. He turned and looked as well.

Ryanna's eyes were about three times as large as normal and she looked as if she would faint.

"You know something don't you?" Elder asked, "You've heard the phrase _nagul areunegeth _haven't you_?_"

"D…Dragon Lords," Ryanna's voice squeaked out finally.

"I don't understand, if you can read this why didn't you tell us?" Cecil asked.

"No, I…can't read the ancient tongue," Ryanna's voice was regaining its strength but she still looked ready to faint, "but, I've heard my elders tell the stories, every one where I'm from has heard the name _nagul areunegeth._"

"Where exactly are you from?" Elder asked eyeing her.

Ryanna looked startled suddenly, "I've said too much, I must go."

She got up to leave but Kain grabbed her arm, "not so fast, I too would like to hear about your homeland."

Cecil spoke up, "Lady, I have felt for some time that there is more to you than it seems, I think now would be a good time for you to tell us the truth."

Ryanna looked frightened, "You think I'm evil don't you."

"No," said Cecil leaning back in his chair, "I know you are not evil, but I also know that you know something important and you cannot hide it from us any longer."

"What about you Kain," Ryanna asked relaxing slightly.

"I fought in many a battle with you and have trusted my life to you, I know you are good, and I trust that you had good reasons for keeping things from me, but we must know what you know."

Ryanna slumped back in her chair, "The elders warned us not to leave the forest, I suppose I knew that I would be required to reveal my identity despite the rule against it." She rose out of her chair.

"What are you doing?" Kain asked.

"Showing you who I am," Ryanna replied. She reached behind her neck and fumbled with something for a moment. An intricate necklace suddenly appeared around her neck as she removed it.

Cecil, Kain and the Elder looked at her closely, at first she seemed exactly the same and then suddenly they noticed the difference. Her face became more angular her eyebrows swept upwards, and her red hair became brighter somehow, but the most notable change was her ears, they swept up and backwards into points. "Now you see me as I really am." Ryanna said as she sat back down.

"Y…you're not human?" Kain asked.

Ryanna looked a little perturbed, "does that bother you so much?"

Elder spoke before Kain could answer though. "Might I ask what you are lady? I thought my self to be familiar with all races, but…"

Ryanna smiled slightly, "Do not be hard on yourself Elder, no human has seen one of us in our true form since before I was born, at least a thousand years ago I think. The elders forbid it. As for what I am, my people are called Eldihel.

The room was completely silent for at least thirty seconds.

"You're an Elf?" Cecil said finally.

"That was the name humans gave us, yes" Ryanna said.

"But all of the histories in Mysidia say that the elves died out over a thousand years ago," Elder looked irritated, not at Ryanna, but at the idea that the histories might not be completely accurate.

"That is what we wished you to believe, my people have hidden themselves in the forests since that time," Ryanna said.

"And no one ever stumbled on to you villages?" asked Cecil.

"Our magic is part of the forest; no one enters the elfin forests with out being allowed to. Those who come to near will suddenly find themselves heading in a different direction," Ryanna said.

"Why did you and Duncan leave the forest then," Cecil asked.

Ryanna continued, "Our scouts had reported more above ground activity from the Mordihel than normal. Then the Taigg reader…that's a sort of oracle, said she felt that the Mordihel were about to do something bad, she didn't see anything specific though. Duncan had just pieced together some information in our library and had figured out where the mountain we call Mount Blood was."

"Mount Ordeals," Cecil broke in.

"Yes," Ryanna said, "You see Mount Blood was the place of the largest city the Mordihel ever built, and the last one they built above ground. Duncan got this idea that we might figure out what the Mordihel were up to by exploring the ruins. No one believed him. I mean no one has lived in the ruins since the end of the war. People figured he was just looking for an excuse to study the ruins; he has…had an insatiable desire to study anything old. They let him go but only let him take one ranger because of the problems we were having with the Mordihel. He chose me. He never told me much about what he hoped to find but I now I know that he must have known more than he told the counsel of Elders, He must have believed that the Mordihel intend to release the dragon lords. That is why I decided it was best to reveal myself to you.

"This is the second time you have mentioned the dragon lords, who are they," Cecil asked.

Ryanna looked troubled, "It is not a thing we like to talk of…the Eldihel once served the dragon lords along with the Mordihel. During the Oath Breaking war we rebelled against them. They were sealed in a battle on Mount Blood and the Mordihel city was destroyed. If the Mordihel have found a way to break the seal…"

"It would be disastrous," finished Cecil.

"Yes."

"I thought that my days of fighting were over," Cecil mused, "perhaps they are not over yet. Tell me do you know anything about this seal, they must have used some sort of talisman to store the power for the seal, if we knew…"

"I'm sorry," Ryanna broke in, "but I don't know any more of the tale. Perhaps my Elders would know something."

"We should take this tablet to your people Ryanna; they will be able to read the rest." Elder said suddenly.

"Yes that would be the best idea," Ryanna finished.

"Where do your people live?" asked Cecil.

"We live in the forests north west of here," said Ryanna, "The city of the Elves there is called Elidar."

"You live south of Troia then, we could take an airship." Cecil said.

"You want to come with me?" asked Ryanna.

"I would like to meet your people if I can," Cecil said.

"You may come if you wish, but don't think they will welcome you easily," Ryanna said.

"Wouldn't be the first time I've been in that position," Cecil said as he smiled at the Elder.

"Perhaps I will come as well," Elder said.

"You wish to come?" Ryanna asked.

"Well, It's not every day that I get a chance to meet a race of people I thought died out a thousand years ago and I'm not about to miss the chance to," Elder said.

"What about you, Kain" Cecil asked.

Kain had not said a word since Ryanna had revealed her Elvin nature, He looked at Cecil slowly, "I don't know if…" what ever he had planed on saying he thought better of it and simply said, "Yes I'll go."

"Fine," said Cecil, "I'll order airship made ready. Meet me at the airship docks in two hours. I need to go find Lorien, Cid's daughter and tell her to get an airship ready for flight."

Kain left as soon as Cecil was gone but Ryanna wasn't about to let him leave without him saying something "Kain, You haven't said a thing since…"

"What do you want me to say, that I'm happy about all this?!!!" Kain angrily broke in.

"Am I so repulsive to you now that you know I am not human, is that what this is about?!" Ryanna asked with equal anger.

"No you're…well…I…I don't know…This is just a lot for me to take in," Kain said finally his anger draining away.

"It seems strange for me to say this, but I…I feel closer to you than just about anyone in along time, I don't want to loose your friendship" Ryanna said as she seemed almost on the verge of tears.

"I…I don't know if I can care for anyone ever again…after the things I've done, I don't know if I deserve your friendship." Kain said.

"I don't care!!" Ryanna suddenly yelled at him. "I don't know what it was you did that was so bad, but YOU are the only one who seems hate you for it. Perhaps you have not always been a good person," she said poking him in the chest for effect, "but I know you are now, Kain…I would trust you even with my life."

"T…Thank you," Kain looked at the floor. "I will try to…I would like to be your friend…I think."

"That's a start," she said as she smiled.

Elder, Ryanna and Kain were at the airship dock waiting for Cecil. He was half an hour late. Lorien, Cid's daughter, was tooling around with one of the airships.

"Do you know what is keeping him, Lorien?" Kain asked.

"Don't know just about the time he got through talking to me one of the guards came and said that there was a messenger from Damcyan, Cecil said he would see him then be right on."

Cecil appeared; by his face something was obviously wrong.

"What happened?" asked Kain.

"Fabul is under a siege," Cecil looked almost ready to faint.

"Fabul," Kain said, "didn't you say that…"

"Yes Rosa is there…and Cid," he gave Lorien a sad look then he looked at Ryanna, "I won't be coming with you, the journey your undertaking is important but you must undertake it without me. I need to mobilize the soldiers as quickly as possible to go to Fabul."

"There is nothing to explain," said Elder "You must go to save Fabul…and you wife."

"I hope that I am not to late," Cecil said, "the messenger from Fabul had to ride all the way from Fabul to Damcyan; it's already been more than two weeks since he left Fabul.

"I'll start the prep for the rest of the airships sir," Lorien said.

"The other engineers can handle that you should go ahead and take them to Troia," Cecil said motioning to the others standing there.

"No," was all Lorien said.

"What?" asked Cecil.

"My fathers in Fabul too, I'm not about to act as a ferry driver when my father could be in danger. He means as much to me as Rosa does to you."

Cecil looked at her a long moment then finally said, "Your right, you have right to be there, get one of the airship pilots to take them…and then…get the other ships ready for flight.

_This chapter ended up being very little action. Mostly because the section where Ryanna shows her true nature took longer than I thought. I wanted to spend some time on plot development in this chapter though there are still many secrets in the plot yet to be revealed. I promise there will be more action in the next chapter._

_If you have any questions, comments, insults, or you have some advice on how I can improve my writhing style let me know._


	5. The Dark Elf Wars Chapter 5

The Dark Elf War

Chapter Five

Crystals

Rydia woke slowly, that was when she realized the back of her head hurt like hell. She fought off a case of nausea and for a second she wished she had stayed asleep. She slowly pealed her eyes open and looked around. "Well I'm in a prison cell, that much is for sure," she thought "But why." Then she slowly began to remember going to Eblan and then…nothing. "Wait…I remember talking to two guards…and then…did they knock me out," she thought. As if to answer the bruise on the back of her head started throbbing again.

"Damn," she said, cursing uncharacteristically as she slowly stood, "If this is your idea of a joke Edge I'm gonna adjust your sense of humor with a club." The only answer she got was the echo off the dungeon walls.

Cecil and the red wings had arrived at Fabul only to find a burned out shell. The devastation was enormous. Hardly a building inside the wall was left standing. Bodies were every where and the stench of burned and rotting flesh filled the air. Cecil slowly walked into the remains of the castle followed by Lorien and a few dozen troops. As Cecil surveyed the scene he felt himself begin to cry. The tears flowed down his face freely

"ROSA!" he shouted, as he ran inside the burned out castle.

Lorain was beside him suddenly, tears in her eyes as well, "My liege, we should look for survivors, perhaps…" she trailed off.

Cecil understood her unspoken thought; perhaps Rosa and Cid had survived this…this massacre, in his mind he knew such a thing was unlikely but he knew they had to look.

Cecil called one of the guard captains over, "we need to spread out to look for survivors and to look for information about the attackers, have them search in groups of two in case there is any of the enemy still about, also assign some men to bury the people here."

Yes sir, "the captain said.

By the morning the people had been buried, and the search was complete.

Lorain found Cecil searching through the remains of the enterprise for survivors, "Cecil the guards have finished burying all the bodies they found."

"Did they find…?" Cecil trailed off.

"No and I don't suspect they will either."

"What do you mean?" Cecil asked his attention now completely on her.

Lorain looked at him, "Don't you get it, they buried all the bodies, this castle holds an entire town inside the walls if everyone was killed then they should be burying people for days. And another thing one of the guards found the entrance into and underground passageway."

Suddenly Cecil remembered. Yang had told him of his plans to have the dwarves dig a tunnel under the mountain to for escape incase they had another siege. Cecil had been quick to dismiss the idea because he thought there would never be another war, but Yang must have gone ahead and built it anyway.

"They are alive," he said suddenly, "They escaped to the west."

He was off in a flash, giving orders to prepare the airships for launch immediately, he knew that while they might still be alive for now the army that had held the castle under siege was still out there, and if it wasn't here anymore it was most likely chasing the refugee's

Yang, Rosa, and Ayan sat in the shadows of the forests trees. Rosa sat quietly in meditation with her eyes closed. Ayan slept on Yang's shoulder peacefully. Yang shifted and pulled open his cloak and looked at the wind crystal. He had taken it with him when they left the castle. He was fairly certain by now that the dark elves were looking for the crystal though he was no sure why. Rosa had been tracking their movements by using a spell of magic sight and they were single minded in their pursuit of Yang. Of the few thousand who had fled the castle many had stopped to warn other small villages of the invaders only to find that the dark elves marched past without even looking sideways at the villages. There were about a thousand still running and almost all of them were soldiers, it was all of the remaining monks from Fabul, Once again Fabul's army had been decimated by an invading army. The troops left weren't organized but small groups had been making attempts harrying the enemy's marching lines too allow Yang more time to escape. Rosa finally opened here eyes.

Yang slipped the crystal back into his cloak, "What have you found out," he asked?

"I think the dark elves are wary of the forest for some reason, but they are still searching for us. Several more units are out to the east a few miles away. They keep locating us somehow." Rosa stretched slowly working out the tightness in her muscles from sitting still so long.

"Magic," Yang asked?

"Yes," said Rosa, "most likely, but it's not any form of spell I've ever seen."

"What do you mean," Yang asked?

"I've spent a lot of my free time studying history from the elder in Mysidia the last couple of years, and well…even the histories in Mysidia are vague.

Yang sounded uncharacteristically annoyed, "Can you give me the short version…we are short on time,"

"I suppose your right," said Rosa, "you see the magic wielded in ancient times was quite a bit different than the magic we use now. For one thing there was no clear difference between black and white magic, but magic was a much stronger force than it was as well.

"What does this have to do with anything," Yang asked sounded more like his old reserved self.

"Well I can't be sure but I think they are using ancient magic…or at least some form of it…it's the only explanation I can think off. I can counter any known scrying method and for some reason I can't figure out how they are locating us.

"Well, all we can do is keep moving," Yang said.

Cecil stood on the bow of Baron's flag ship, the Kaze. He was watching for any signs of the army that had destroyed the castle or the refugees. The ship had been flying at top speeds for several hours over Fabul's lands. It hadn't taken long to find the mountain that the escape passage went too, or what was left of it. Every one was in shock from seeing the mountain. It had been totally destroyed. They had almost believed that everyone was killed when the mountain collapsed but the signs of escape, and the pursuing soldiers were obvious

Lorien approached Cecil, "Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yes…no…ah I don't know," Cecil looked towards her, "There is something weird about what happened back at that mountain."

"I was thinking the same thing," Lorien said.

"If the invaders had caught up to them they could not have escaped but the invaders seemed to be behind them so the question is who where they fighting," Cecil finished.

Before Lorien could respond, one of the crew members shouted, "I've spotted two armies fighting in the distance."

Cecil moved into action immediately, "give signals to the other airships, all troops to the ready, if that is Fabul fighting out there we will have to give aid to them."

Waiting seemed like eternity as the airships raced towards the battle. Finally the lookout shouted.

"Its Fabul your majesty, I can see their colors flying, it's a small group and they appear to be surrounded by a rather large group of soldiers."

"Alright give the other airships orders to deploy troops and attack" Cecil shouted.

Within seconds the battle was engaged. The airships flew over the attackers dropping explosives. Half of Baron's airships pulled to a halt and dropped near the ground as unloading planks were dropped and troops began to march out. The rest of the ships used there bombs to keep the Dark elves at a distance and disorganize their troops. The Fabulian army seeing Barons airships redoubled their efforts to hold their lines against the enemy. The dark elves captain started barking orders to get the lines turned to face the new attackers as Baron's Dragoons marched into the line and began to cut through their lines. The dragoons created disarray in the enemy lines by jumping into the middle of them as the other half of the air ships began unloading airships behind the enemies. The surprise of the attack made it hard for the dark elves to defend their position and they began to be forced back, when the other dragoons hit them from behind. The dark elves had not expected this though their leader was obviously a good tactician Baron's forces moved to quickly with the aid of the airships for him to react fast enough. Despite the greater numbers of soldiers the dark elves had they could not hold off the attacks with the disorganized forces. Baronian forces finally fought their way to Fabul's troops and they joined their ranks. Suddenly a bright flash emanated from the middle of the dark elf soldiers and someone rose out of the middle surrounded by a ball of light.

His voice boomed over the whole battle field, "HUMANS…BETRAYERS, YET AGAIN YOU FIGHT AGAINST YOUR MASTERS. YOU CAN NOT DEFEAT THE DRAGON LORDS."

He began chanting and the energy began to grow around him stronger. Cecil began hearing screams around him he turned to see all of the crew on the airship on the deck screaming in pain. He ran to the side of the deck to see all of Baron's army in the same state as those on the deck of the ship. Cecil only had a moment to wonder why he was not being affected as the others were; he only knew that he had to stop the mage casting the spell. Cecil grabbed the airships controls and steered straight for the mage. Locking the steering controls he ran to the highest part of the deck and pulled his sword and aimed it at the glowing orb surrounding the dark mage.

The mage opened his eyes to suddenly see the Cecil and the airship bearing down on him. "Wha…!! How can you move?"

Cecil's sword ran strait into the barrier a second later and cracked though it as the mage fell onto the deck of the airship.

"H…How did you do that…your sword is made from crystal." The mage gasped.

The mage suddenly jumped to his feet and attacked Cecil, moving swiftly and wielding his staff like a club he attempted to smash Cecil over the head. Cecil blocked the staff with his shield and struck back with his sword. They fought over the deck of the airship. Cecil deftly parried the mages attacks.

The looked at Cecil with contempt "You fight well for a human, but how about this?"

The mage spoke some words in a language that Cecil had never heard and the mages staff flared with darkness. Cecil had never seen anything like it before; the staff almost seemed to pull light into it.

"NOW YOU DIE."

The mage swung his staff at Cecil and he parried it. The mages staff flared with darkness and the Ragnarok flared with light in response and the mages staff shattered in an explosion of light.

"What?!!…" The mage fell back on the deck with a look of surprise on his face, "That sword…how?"

Cecil walked towards the mage and lowered his sword to his neck, "Why are you attacking Fabul?"

The mage ignored the question and looked back at Cecil with contempt, "That sword is Ragnarok." His eyes narrowed, "…I suppose you're the one who killed Zeromus…but your part in this has already been completed. We have no more need of you."

"What do you mean?" Cecil demanded.

"Who do you think you are? Do you think you can stand against the rising storm? The dragon lords will return and destroy the human traitors."

The mage suddenly rolled away from Cecil's sword and jumped to his feet. A black globe leapt from the mages hand and flew at Cecil. He had no time to dodge the spell so he blocked it with his shield. The spell hit Cecil's shield and he felt his left arm go numb and he staggered from the force of the magic.

"Damn, I can't move my arm…I won't be able to block another one," Cecil thought to himself.

The mage smiled when he saw that the spell had hurt Cecil and began to ready another blast. Cecil gathered his strength, rushed forward and drove his sword forward in to the mages neck. Blood spurted from the wound as the mage fell to the ground.

Cecil fell to the ground felling the numbness take more of his body. He began chanting a healing spell and it lessened the numbness somewhat.

Slowly all the crew member regained consciousness. Below you could hear the sounds of fighting as Baron's troops were finishing the battle. The dark elves, instead of retreating, just fought on until ever last one was dead.

The airships landed and Cecil gave orders to begin loading the wounded and to start healing them. He's left arm still felt a little numb but he ignored it and went to find out who was in charge of the detachment of Fabul's troops.

Cecil grabbed one of Fabul's soldiers and asked him who was in charge.

"You should speak to Captain Li you majesty, I believe he is loading wounded onto that ship," he said as he motioned in the direction of the ship the captain was near

He found the captain loading his soldiers on one of the airships.

"Captain, may I have a word with you," Cecil said, "its time I found out what's going on around here."

"Y…Yes king Baron," the captain said.

Yang and the others moved along silently continuing to evade the dark elves. Yang signaled for everyone to stop.

"I am sensing someone watching us," Yang whispered.

A figure emerged from the forest and spoke in a quite but forceful voice, "King of Fabul allows me to introduce myself, I am Zanith high priest to the temple of Xelotath."

Yang studied Zanith a moment before responding, "Who is Xelotath, I have never heard of this god you speak of."

"We of the Mordihel worship our Xelotath because he is our creator. However, you humans deny your gods and worship the crystals with out knowing why," Zanith sneered at Yang, "and on top of that you call yourself a king."

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Yang responded.

Zanith sighed "You humans have such a short memory; I witnessed the creation of the crystals, and I was not impressed by their creators."

"Why are you after the wind crystal," Yang asked?

The "So you figured out we are after the crystals. However, you still have no idea why. You humans are a constant source of amusement to me." Zanith smiled again, "Well I'm in a good mood so I'll give you a hint…the crystals original purpose was something quite different than being a power source for the giant of Bab-il. Now, give the crystal to me, your majesty."

Yang's eyes narrowed and he took a defensive stance, "I think not."

The man sighed and shrugged his shoulders, "I knew you would make this difficult…"

He suddenly spoke in a louder voice, "alright take the crystal from him by force."

Quickly more than a dozen soldiers dressed in black emerged from the trees.

Yang, Rosa and Ayan crouched and readied for an attack.

"Rosa, get my wife out of here," Yang shouted.

"I'm not leaving you, beside we are surrounded there is no where for me to go."

The enemy jumped almost before they could react. Yang was already trying to hold off three of them at once as Rosa tried to hold them back with her bow. Yang killed one opponent only to have it replaced by another. Rosa could see more of them coming out of the woods and silently wondered how so many had surrounded them without any of them noticing it. She looked to her left and noticed that Ayan was lying on the ground unconscious; Rosa could not tell if she was breathing. Yang was surrounded by at least seven or eight dark elves and was bleeding badly in several places. Rosa started to cast a healing spell on him, but before she had completed the incantation she felt a blow strike the back of her head, she staggered and collapsed to the ground, her consciousness ebbed from her. She could see Yang trying unsuccessfully to fight back against the dozens of soldiers that had entered the clearing and the rest faded into blackness.

Elban's chamberlain sat in his room. The only place he was allowed to go seeing as Edge ordered him confined to his room after he had suggested to the king that the king's fiancé Adrelea might be trying to usurp Edge's power. He was certain more than ever that Adrelea was using some form of mind control on the king, but she had complete control of the soldiers in the castle so it would be hard get help. First he decided that he would need more proof. Then he could perhaps get help from Baron or one of the other kingdoms. The chamberlain, having reached a decision, quietly opened a secret passageway behind his bookshelf and quickly made his way to the room Adrelea stayed in. He wasn't particularly worried about being discovered since almost no one knew about these passages and besides he hadn't worked for a clan of ninjas for the last forty years without picking up a few tricks. Finally he found what he was looking for; he climbed to a position above her room and settled in to see what she was up to. He looked in but saw no one, he would wait. Despite his age he could wait without moving for hours, even days if necessary.

The chamberlain was still in the same position when Adrelea entered the room two hours later.

"Finally I can quit putting on airs for that ridiculous prince," Adrelea collapsed on her bed. "I wish he would just give up the swords so I could get out of here."

"So she is after the kings swords," the chamberlain thought, "What does she want with those swords."

Adrelea sat up suddenly as if surprised. A man cloaked in black appeared in middle of the room and Adrelea quickly got out of bed and bowed before the man.

"Have you retrieved the swords yet," The man in black asked.

"High lord, I have not yet completed my mission, the king is more resistant than we first thought; He carries the swords with at all times now and…"

The man in black interrupts, "I do not need to hear your excuses, I need results, those swords are a threat to us and you need to get them from this king before he realizes their power."

"Yes, high lord I promise I will…" Adrelea began.

The man in black interrupted her, "Don't grovel; you were never good at it, just carry out your part in the plan. What about the summoner?"

"The summoner Rydia was captured and placed in the dungeon as you ordered." Adrelea responded.

"Good at least you did one thing right; now hurry up and get those swords from the king," then as suddenly as he had appeared he was gone.

"Hmm…Rydia has been captured," the chamberlain thought, "perhaps she can help me free the king."

He quietly left his position and made his way to a secret passage to the dungeon.

Edge sat quietly staring at his twin swords Masamune and Murasame. Adrelea was beautiful, but she was doing something to him, he couldn't think clearly when she was around. He had even locked the chamberlain in his room. He meant to rescind that order, but every time he tried to do it Adrelea convinced him otherwise. She had also asked to look at his swords, but strangely, unlike her other requests; he had refused this one. With his mind clear at the moment he could see that she seemed be desperate to get his swords, but somehow unable to take them, she needed him to give them to her freely. It seemed strange to him.

Edge had the feeling that the swords were trying to talk to him. He knew it was silly but somehow he couldn't shake the feeling. In any case the only time he seemed to be able to think clearly was when he was looking at these swords. However, it was more than that now; he was beginning to see visions when he looked at the swords. In the visions he saw a magnificent city with white spire shaped towers that stretched higher than the tower of Bab-il. Everything about the world was beautiful, but somehow it felt sinister, like something evil was beneath the surface just waiting for something.

"Remember…"

Edge stood and looked around but saw no one, "That's strange I could've swore I just heard a voice." He sat down and looked at his swords again. It almost seemed as if they were glowing faintly.

"…our failure…"

Edge stood up and raised his swords into a defensive stance, but still saw no one.

"You must remember our…failure," the raspy voice intoned.

Edge suddenly felt a presence behind him and turned to see a man dressed in a white robe. The man had long white hair and there was something inhuman about him, in fact Edge thought the man looked Lunarian in origin but something about him seemed off somehow.

"How did you get in here?" Edge demanded.

The man in white just smiled at him, "I have something to show you."

"Show me…what must you show me?" Edge asked.

The man looked sad for a moment, "The truth, about this world…and about the failure of my people."

The man reached out and touched the king's face and suddenly he was assaulted with visions. He could see the great towers of the white city. Edge floated over the city seeing it come closer and closer. He could see great ships coming down from and going up into the sky.

The man in white was suddenly beside Edge, "This was my city, it is lovely is it not."

Edge, at a loss for words simply nodded.

The man in white continued, "My people were known as the Lotar. They were highly knowledgeable in both magic and science and had mastered the ability of traveling between planets with ease. We colonized many worlds and expanded our power. We were gods…or so we thought. I, along with my mate, ruled the kingdom of Loth, one of the many kingdoms that existed within our vast empire."

Edge could see the city closely now, the large towers were ornately built and he could see people walking along the streets below. The people had pale skin and white hair, almost as if they were albinos.

The man in white began talking again, "My people were quite different than you, we had no emotion, or at least none as you would understand it. We lived only for ourselves, the universe was our plaything. We felt invincible; no one else could match our powers. However, we would cause our own undoing."

Light flashed around them and suddenly Edge found himself standing inside a large room filled with all sorts of machinery that Edge had never seen before. Large vats were filled with some sort of blue liquid. He could see three of the strange looking people standing in front of one of the largest machines. Edge could see them talking but couldn't hear any sound.

The man in white spoke, "We grew tired of our constant fighting with other lesser beings…and also with each other. Our people were a haughty race and we were constantly fighting over power. I and my mate decided to use our powers to create beings to do our fighting for us. We created beings of fearsome power and cunning."

Edge looked back at the scene in front of him and saw something climbing out of the liquid. Edge gasped, "It's a…dragon."

Edge was suddenly snapped back to reality. Adrelea stood next to him.

"Edge dear, are you all right," Adrelea said.

"Yes, I…," The memory of the dragon climbing out of the vat of liquid invaded his mind and made him shutter. "I am fine," he finished finally.

Adrelea saw Edge's swords laying in his lap, "Are you looking at your swords, may I see them," She asked almost too politely.

"NO," Edge roared suddenly, surprised at his own ability to resist Adrelea's suggestions. Edge stood and slipped his swords back into their sheaths.

Adrelea began crying, "I just wanted to look at them…you didn't have to yet at me."

Edge's resolve weakened and he kneeled down beside her, "I…I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I'm just tired. I think I'll go lay down for a bit."

Adrelea smiled as she regained her control of Edge, "yes you should go rest." Edge slowly walked out.

"Damn," Adrelea swore, "My control of him is getting worse everyday, how am I supposed to get him to hand over those swords."

It hadn't taken Rydia long to figure out that she was unable to cast magic or summon within the cell she was in, what she didn't understand was how someone had constructed a cell capable of blocking summoning powers. Most people didn't know much about summoning magic. Actually even summoners didn't know much about summoning, its origins had been lost in history. No one knew who had been the first to make a pact with a monster or why it had happened, so it seemed odd to her that anyone would know how to block the bond with her monsters.

"Miss Rydia, are you there?" Rydia suddenly heard a voice outside her cell.

"Who's there?" Rydia asked.

An old mans face peered through the bars into her cell, "It is I, the chamberlain."

Rydia's anger flared when she saw him, "Why the hell did Edge lock me up in here, I demand to be released immediately."

"Shhhh," the chamberlain motioned her to quietness; "You don't know what's been going on around here. Edge is no longer in control of his own kingdom."

"What do you mean, if he isn't in control who is?" Rydia asked.

"First let me get you out of here."

The chamberlain produced a key from his robes and unlocked the door. Rydia stepped out of the cell and could immediately feel the presence of the summoned monsters in her mind again. She had never realized how disconcerting being disconnected from them would be until now. She breathed a sigh of relief.

"Come," the chamberlain motioned for Rydia to follow. He quickly led her to the end of one of the cell blocks and pressed a hidden switch which opened a door into the wall. "Come on we need to get out of sight." He led her into the small hidden passage.

As they walked Rydia finally spoke up, "So are you going to tell me what's going on here?"

"Yes but not here," the chamberlain whispered, "these passages echo and someone might here us through the walls."

He led down passages turning this way and that for what seemed like hours to Rydia, but it was more like ten minutes. Finally he took her down on passage way that dead ended. Rydia watched as he pulled a level in the wall. She realized that there was a door there in the wall that was almost invisible unless you knew what you were looking for. He led her through the small door and shut it tightly. Rydia found herself in a small room with a desk, bed and a small chair.

The chamberlain spoke at last "I found this place when I was a child," he paused for a second and looked embarrassed, "Actually I had a habit of hiding here when I was supposed to do chores,"

Rydia suppressed a laugh.

"The chamberlain raised an eyebrow, "You find that funny."

"It's just hard to imagine you as a child," Rydia said.

"Hmm…yes…well I suppose I should explain the situation to you. I had suggested that he chose a bride, and after an extensive search…he refused to pick anyone. However a woman named Adrelea came to the castle one day and Edge became quite taken with her very quickly, too quickly I though, but I was so happy that he was taking his kingly duties seriously that I didn't notice that he was no longer ruling the country anymore. Once I realized what was going on Adrelea had me sealed in my quarters. Likely she had you imprisoned because she thought you would create problems in her plans."

Rydia looked thoughtful for a moment, "Do you know what she is after?"

"That's the strange thing," the chamberlain said, "she is apparently after Edges swords."

"His swords, why would those be so important?" Rydia asked.

"I don't know, but I heard her talking to this strange person in her quarters and it seems that she cannot just take the swords, Edge must give them freely. I don't really understand it myself."

"Well I supposed you broke me out of prison for some reason. I mean, when I was last here two years ago you made in clear I was not welcome; I actually thought it might have been you who locked me up." Rydia asked.

"Rydia I try to understand, I did not ask you to leave because I dislike you, but…well…you may not have noticed this but the king was, and still is I suppose, very smitten with you."

"You don't say," Rydia responded sarcastically.

The chamberlain smiled a bit, "At the time I was trying to convince him to choose a bride and well…"

"I'm not exactly queen material," Rydia smiled a bit sarcastically, "is that what you're saying?"

"Well something like that..."

"Well you don't have to worry," Rydia quipped, "I have no interest in marrying him."

"Really…" the chamberlain began, "I had the feeling…"

Rydia raised an eyebrow gave him a look cold look as if daring him to continue his sentence.

"Well never mind that now," The chamberlain quickly changed the subject, "Let me explain the situation. The mind control she is using is very powerful, so powerful it took me two months to realize what was happening. I knew the king was acting a bit strangely but…well…I honestly thought it was because he couldn't chase women around anymore."

Rydia chuckled a bit "I probably would have though the same."

"However as he spent more time with Adrelea he began to act more and more strangely, the first thing I noticed was that he began to carry his swords with him at all times. Adrelea began separating him from the public more and more, and I began to believe that she meant harm to the king, when I confronted her she became angry, had dismissed from my duties and locked in my room. Of course I broke out and listened in to her conversation with the man in black and found out about you. I know it may be a lot to ask of you Lady Rydia, but I would like you to confront Adrelea and stop her."

Rydia smirked, "So when you need my help I'm a lady. Of course I'll help, Edge may be a bit of a pervert, but we stood together against Zeromus and I'm not going to abandon him. He's my friend."

"Thank you Lady Rydia…" The chamberlain began.

Rydia interrupted, "Stop with the lady stuff, it sounds weird. Why don't you show me where Adrelea is instead?"

"Yes this way."

Edge walked slowly down a corridor of his castle, the castle guards he passed recognized that something was odd with him. Edge ignored them and walked on.

"Why should you just obey her every command," a small voice echoed in his head.

Edge wondered where the voice came from but could not deny the logic of its question. It was if she had some control on him, he began to remember the past few months and wondered that so many things he had done were completely unlike him.

"Confront her, make her give you an explanation." The voice quietly said.

Edge wondered for a moment at trading one form of mind control for another, but something told him to trust this voice. His mind was still foggy, but something told him this voice was there to help. It seemed familiar somehow, like he had known the owner of the voice for along time. He made a decision to go see Adrelea.

Adrelea sat in the throne room trying to convince an envoy from Agart to leave, they had already been arguing for some time when Rydia quietly slipped from one of the secret corridors.

"We came to see King Edward Geraldine, not you…who are you anyway?" the ambassador said.

"Oh, you silly…I'm Edge's fiancé, Edge is feeling unwell and isn't seeing anyone today," Adrelea voice sounded saccharine sweet.

"I don't care if he is feeling unwell!!" the man boomed "Unless he's dying he bloody well better see me. The Dwarven Empire is under attack and they've asked us to go get help. Now take me to the king right now you little trollop."

Adrelea narrowed her eyes and smiled wickedly, "I don't think is proper for you to address a future queen in such a fashion…" she her expression changed to one of boredom, "You are no longer entertaining, if you will not leave I will just have to remove you by force."

She lifted her hand and a blast of light erupted from her hand and speed towards the emissary. Suddenly another blast came from the side of the room, Instead of hitting the emissary Adrelea's blast took out a section of the wall next to him.

Rydia stepped out of the shadows and looked towards the man from Agart, "I would suggest you leave for now."

"Y…yes," The man took her advice and fled immediately.

Adrelea looked at her and narrowed her eyes, "Do you intend to interfere with my plans?"

Rydia crossed her arms and gave Adrelea a sarcastic look, "Well you're a bright one aren't you?"

"Don't insult me little girl, I could destroy you with a word."

Rydia smiled, "I don't think so; if you could have you would have to begin with instead of locking me in that cell. Actually, if I were to guess I would say you are afraid of me."

Adrelea sputtered, "Fool!! Do you realize who I am?"

"No, and I honestly don't care, I've been told you've been abusing my friend Edge, for that I cannot forgive you."

"Hmm, well let's see you deal with this, GUARDS!!!"

"What are you playing at?" Rydia asked.

"Castle guards will fill this room any second, will you kill the innocent to get to me."

A dozen guards burst into the throne room.

Adrelea pointed at Rydia, "This woman has broken out of the dungeon; she seeks to kill the King. Kill her now!!"

One of the guards seemed to recognize Rydia, "But isn't this woman a friend of the king?"

"Don't question me just kill her."

Rydia backed up, it would be hard to stop these men without killing them, she was a powerful mage but a sword could fell her as soon as any other person.

"D…delay that order,"

All heads turned to see Edge as he walked through the door.

"Edge dear," Adrelea began in her saccharine voice, "You aren't well you should be in bed, you should not be worrying about this."

I…It's…your fault." Edge spat the words out.

"What do you mean dear," Adrelea asked innocently.

"I…don't know what you did, but I won't stand for it anymore," Edge's words were coming more easily now.

"You don't know what your saying my love," Adrelea began.

Edge drew his swords and felt a surge of strength flow into him from the swords, "SHUT YOUR MOUTH YOU BITCH!!!" With more control he continued," I am not your love and I will not stand for you lies anymore. Tell me, WHO ARE YOU?"

Adrelea smiled, "It is a shame you will not live to find out. I shouldn't have bothered with the charade in the first place…I was never one for…subtly." Adrelea waved her arms in the air and light gathered at the tip of her finger forming an arcane symbol in the air, "Many people have died on this land; let's see how your swords fair against an army of undead."

Light flared around her and it felt as if the ground was shaking.

Guards burst into the room a moment later, "Your majesty, we are being attacked by a large group of…undead."

"Well muster a defense," Edge shouted back.

"Your majesty they appeared inside the castle," the soldier looked desperate.

"AAAAAHHH!!" Rydia screamed suddenly as the wall beside her was broken through and the skeleton of a large ogre broke through.

"AAAAUUUURRRRRGGGG," a strange sound emanated from the undead giant, the sound was especially unsettling since it had no lungs or vocal chords with which to make the sound. It waved its huge club towards Edge; he expertly flipped backwards out of its way. Before he had a chance to attack Rydia threw out a fire spell and incinerated the undead monster. More were pouring threw the hole and the sounds of fighting could be heard throughout the castles halls.

Edge turned to Adrelea, "You…what have you done. You controlled my mind…and now…this. Why?"

Adrelea smiled, "It was the task I was given. I would have taken the swords from you peacefully, but you were too stubborn. The swords are awakening so I will have to kill you now."

Edge pulled his swords from his back, "You want my swords huh, well come and get them."

Adrelea raised her hand and shot a bolt of energy at Edge, his quick reflexes allowed him to easily avoid it. He dashed forward and brought his twin swords downward to strike Adrelea, but she pulled a long dagger from her robe and blocked his attack. Adrelea levitated flying away from Edge she threw more spells at him. Edge dodged them all and responded by throwing a ninjitsu at her, "Flame!" Flames leapt from the floor and engulfed Adrelea. She fell to the floor in a heap.

"Hmm, that was it," Edge almost laughed to himself. He walked forward to examine the body. Adrelea's dress was partially burned off and her skin was burned in a few places. "That's odd; she should have been burned worse than…" Edge began.

Before he could finish his sentence Adrelea leapt from the floor, she stuck forward with her dagger and caught Edge on the left cheek. Blood began to flow from his face. He stumbled backwards and tripped on a stone that had been part of the wall. Edge fell to the floor and Adrelea was on top of him in a seconded. "I don't know why he was so scared of you," She said with rancor, she smiled wickedly; "I doubt you can dodge my attack at this range."

"Firega!" Rydia shouted. Adrelea's look turned to one of shock as the spell hit her with full force; she was thrown back against the wall as the fire exploded around her.

Rydia helped Edge to his feet, "Are you alright?"

"It's just a cut, I'll be fine," He assured her.

Adrelea's power was waning, and the undead attacking the castle were collapsing.

"We should get out of here," Rydia said.

"Did you think I would die so easily," Adrelea slowly stood to her feet. Her clothes were a bit singed but other wise she was fine. She shot a blast at Edge sending him crashing into a wall and knocking him unconscious. "I never thought one little summoner could cause me so much trouble, but I will have those swords if I have to kill you to get them."

Adrelea began weaving her hands through the air; a globe of darkness appeared in her hand and flew towards Rydia. She tried to dodge it but was too slow, it hit her in the left arm and she it went numb. "Flare!" Rydia shouted, sending the black magic spell hurling towards Adrelea. The spell crashed directly into her. The power crashed into Adrelea, she was thrown against a wall as the spell pounded her mercilessly. As the spells power evaporated Adrelea's body hit the floor with a thud, but before Rydia could move Adrelea was up. Her body was covered with third degree burns.

"H…how are you still alive?" Rydia stammered.

"This body is not mine. It is just a tool. As long as I finish my mission I don't care what happens to it, I can find another." Adrelea smiled wickedly, "Enough playing around, now you die," she began attacking Rydia full force, waves of the dark magic that she wielded flew in towards Rydia. It hit her full force and flung her against ground. The pain was almost unbearable she began to black out, "No…must stay awake…one chance," she pulled herself to her knees. "What? Still wants some more," Adrelea laughed, "Your stronger than I expected."

Rydia fought back the urge to cry from the pain, "I call upon the ultimate black magic, METEO!!!!"

Adrelea turned white, "WHAT!! You cannot know that spell, how can a human know that spell?"

Despite Adrelea's protests Magic power poured from Rydia's hand and a black cloud formed above Adrelea. She gasped as the cloud swirled and the ultimate magic poured forth. Adrelea formed a barrier around herself but it was battered away by the magic. "AAAAAGGG," Adrelea screamed, and then silence.

Rydia fought to stay conscious, pain still seared through her body.

"Damn you bitch," she heard Adrelea intone weakly, "How did you…" and Adrelea's breathing finally stopped.

Rydia breathed a sigh of relief and then passed out.

In an instant Adrelea or more correctly Naeya found herself returned to the void she had been sealed in

"So you failed to get the swords." A voice spoke next to her. "Do you know how much power I had to expend to get your consciousness out of here, even with the barrier weakened?"

"I am sorry lord, the mage escaped…there was nothing I could do; she used Meteo on me!! Naeya said, sounding a little nervous.

"I warned you not to underestimate the humans!!"

"I'm sorry," Adrelea began to apologize again.

"Shut up!!"

Naeya thought it best to just do what she was told.

Authors notes:

Whew!!! Sorry to anyone who has been waiting for another installment. I know it has been a while. This was the hardest chapter to write so far. I kept running into sections I couldn't get to look right and then I would get busy with other projects and forget about it for a while. Even as is there are a couple of parts I'm not totally satisfied with, but I finally just had to give up on making it look perfect. This is by far the longest chapter I've written so far so I hope you like it, I feel like it's the best one I've writing so far. Anyway, I promise the next chapter won't take so long. I welcome feed back on this; in fact I would like it. I am seriously thinking of becoming a writer and so I would appreciate any advice people have to give, but please make it intelligent. Sending me emails telling me I suck isn't really advice, but you guys already know that. If any writers out there have advice on how I can improve my writing style let me know.

Next chapter:

Kain makes an interesting discovery about his past, and Cecil is still trying to find Rosa.


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